Talk:Catbird seat

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It is unlikely that the "catbird seat" derived from an Australian bowerbird or catbird (family Ptilonorhynchidae). It is much more likely that the term is in reference to the American grey catbird (Dumetella carolinensis). This is probably the bird that Red Barber, who grew up in Mississippi, was talking about. The winter range of the Grey Catbird extends from the Gulf States to Panama. [1]

There is a contradiction between two different articles.

In this article, you comment that Red Barber's daughter attributed his use of the phrase "sitting in the Catbird seat" to James Thurber's short story:

"According to Barber's daughter, however, it was only after Barber read Thurber's story that he started using the phrase "in the catbird seat" himself."

Another Wikiepdia article (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baseball_slang) titled "English language idioms derived from baseball" says that Barber, interviewed in the Saturday Review in 1958, said that he first heard this term during a game of penny-ante poker while he was in Cincinnati, presumably sometime in the 1930s, and borrowed it for his radio broadcasts.

There is no publication cited regarding the daughter's comment.

• Indeed; an Australian connect is unlikely in the extreme. I think it may mean nothing more than "sitting on a nest with three eggs under you." 149.8.226.148 17:42, 14 November 2006 (UTC)