Origin of Catbird Seat

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hello, this is Mike from Locha Poker, Alabama.

Well, my question is about this term that would come up.

Years ago, I played poker with friends, and it was nickel-dime quarter.

We just have a little fun.

We have this banter.

When the cards came around, like a two would come up.

We’d say, Lucy, Lucy, or there’s a fever.

And we get to the last person in the betting order would have this advantage because he got to see everybody play their cards.

Somebody maybe bet strong, and then somebody bowls.

Somebody maybe matches bets.

Somebody raised a bet.

And when you got to the last guy, he was said to be in the catbird seat because he had this advantage.

I understand what it means.

I just wondered how in the world did that ever get to be.

I mean, that’s really a puzzle, and I’m glad your show’s there because I can never figure this out.

Well, it’s interesting that you mentioned poker.

Let me ask you, Mike, did you ever listen to Morning Edition on NPR back when Bob Edwards was the host?

Oh, absolutely, yeah.

Okay.

Do you remember on Fridays he used to have this colorful sportscaster named Red Barber?

I do.

I sure do.

Yeah, and he was from sort of down your way.

He was a colorful guy from Mississippi.

And he’s the guy who’s been credited with popularizing this expression.

And he actually claims that he heard it in a poker game sitting in the catbird seat.

Yeah, yeah.

In fact, he lost a lot of money in that round.

And he said he lost so much money that he figured he might as well get a phrase out of it since he paid for it.

Well, that’s quite a coincidence, yeah.

Yeah.

And then it was popularized even more by a short story by the writer James Thurber.

It’s a really funny story called The Catbird Seat.

And it’s about a really annoying office worker.

And this woman in this story runs around using phrases that she heard Red Barber use when he was calling the Dodgers games.

And so she’s the kind of person who he describes her as somebody who who would romp into somebody’s office like a circus horse and say things like,

Are you lifting the ox cart out of the ditch?

Are you tearing up the pea patch?

Are you hollering down the rain barrel?

Are you sitting in the catbird seat?

Just, you know, that kind of person around the office who says annoying things like that.

I don’t know.

Have you ever run into catbirds down there?

Oh, we have a few catbirds.

They’re supposed to be kind of a bad bird because they, in a sense, they take over other birds’ nests and lay their eggs in there, and then the other birds sit on their eggs for them.

Huh.

So they’re in somebody else’s seat.

But they have a call like a cat, right?

And they like to be up high.

They’re like mockingbirds.

They like to be up high and do their call to beckon a mate.

Oh, okay.

Or to establish their territorial range.

Yeah.

So if they’re up high in a tree, then they’re in a position of advantage.

Yeah, where they can see everything happening around them.

Oh, okay.

There you go.

I’m glad you have this show because I could have never figured that out.

Yeah.

Yeah, I think it’s really interesting that Red heard about it in a poker game, just like you.

I know.

And the earliest use that we know of the term in print is from 1916, also from a poker game in Georgia.

Wow, okay.

It’s a very southern thing.

I’m down here in Alabama.

There we go.

Well, Mike, thank you for calling.

We really appreciate it.

Thank you.

All right, take care now.

Take care.

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