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Discuss Email this Feedback RSS/XML Permalink A.Word.A.Day--catbird seat This week's theme: expressions coined after the names of birds. catbird seat (KAT-burd seet) noun A position of power and advantage. [A catbird (named after its catlike call) is known to build a pile of rocks to attract a mate and sit on the highest point around. This expression was often used by Brooklyn Dodgers baseball commentator Red Barber and further popularized by the author James Thurber in his story "The Catbird Seat" where a character often utters trite phrases, including the expression "sitting in the catbird seat".] -Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org) "So, Stillking Films seems perched in the catbird seat. 'Things are going very well for us at the moment,' David Minkowski says." Steffen Silvis; Stillking is Still King; The Prague Post (Czech Republic); Apr 5, 2007. X-Bonus An epoch will come when people will disclaim kinship with us as we disclaim kinship with the monkeys. -Khalil Gibran, mystic, poet, and artist (1883-1931)

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