<P> `` The catbird seat '' is an American English idiomatic phrase used to describe an enviable position , often in terms of having the upper hand or greater advantage in any type of dealing among parties . According to the Oxford English Dictionary , the first recorded usage occurred in a 1942 humorous short story by James Thurber titled `` The Catbird Seat , '' which features a character , Mrs. Barrows , who likes to use the phrase . Another character , Joey Hart , explains that Mrs. Barrows must have picked up the expression from Red Barber , the baseball broadcaster , and that to Barber `` sitting in the catbird seat '' meant `` ' sitting pretty , ' like a batter with three balls and no strikes on him . '' </P>
what does it mean to be in the catbird seat
an enviable position the upper hand or greater advantage sitting pretty