Talk:Catbird seat

message: "However, according to "Colonel" Bob Edwards' book Fridays with Red, Barber claimed that Thurber got this and many other expressions from him, and that Barber had first heard the term used during a poker game in Cincinnati during the Great Depression."
Who is HIM (and HE) -- Barbner or Edwards? This convoiluted sentence needs rewriting as two or three shorter, clear sentences.202.82.171.186 (talk) 01:46, 2 April 2009 (UTC)
thread_title: Unclear language

message: --CopyToWiktionaryBot 02:27, 1 February 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  2007-02-1 Automated pywikipediabot message 

message: Most of this page is just advertizing for an obscure band. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Oscar Goldman (talk • contribs) 03:26, 5 March 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Moron.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 132.3.65.82 (talk) 21:32, 23 May 2017 (UTC)
thread_title:  reads like advertizing 

message: ...like a batter with three balls and no strikes on him.
Please can someone explain what this means, to an audience ignorant of baseball? We don't all live in the good ole U.S. of A, you know.
--84.9.73.117 18:42, 7 July 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: See Count (baseball). I'll insert a link. -Phoenixrod (talk) 03:23, 22 April 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Translate from American please?" 

message: I am moving the following text here:
"The Catbird Seat" is also a well known short story by renowned writer James Thurber.  Thurber's short story is studied in schools all across the world because of Thurber's interesting use of indirect characterization.  In the novel, the meticulous main character, Mr. Martin, is afraid that he may be fired by the boss's new assistant.  Therefore, he plans to kill the new assistant but when he arrives to carry out his plan, finds he cannot, not out of morals but out of fear.  He cannot kill her so he begins drinking and smoking and doing everything that people who know him know he would not do.  Then he tells her that he is going to kill the boss.  The new assistant comes running into work the next day to tell everybody her story, but nobody believes her and they believe that she is crazy so the boss has no choice but to fire her.
I'm not sure it's terribly important to detail the story's plot in this article's final paragraph. It seems out of place there, especially because it is introduced as if it's a new idea, but Thurber's story has been mentioned three times already in the article. Comments are appreciated. -Phoenixrod (talk) 03:28, 22 April 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Thurber's story 

message: The article does not explain why the catbird's seat is good. I don't have ready sources but this is the gist of it. In fact, many accounts of the catbird seat get it wrong.
Catbirds eat insects, mostly, a characteristic that contributes to the memorableness of where the catbird sits. Back when horse plows turned the soil, catbirds would sit on the plowman's hat in order to get a good look at any insects turned up by the plow. Catbirds are also very distinct animals being a dark bird about the size of a jay with some red underparts. This behavior, a distinct look, a preternatural ability at mimicry and a saucy attitude helped make sitting in the catbird seat a classic metaphorical phrase. 
You will read in some other places that catbirds sit on roofs and treetops to sing their mimicked songs. Mockingbirds do this but catbirds tend to hide. A hidden bird that can mimic a cat does tend to frighten off other birds, perhaps. But it's the sitting on someone's hat to catch insects that marks the catbird seat. Halfelven (talk) 01:01, 17 November 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  Explanation?