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Catbird seat. The gray catbird, Dumetella carolinensis, atop a stalk of grain. " The catbird seat " is an 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. It derives from the secluded perch on which the gray catbird makes mocking calls.
The Oxford English Dictionary attributes the first recorded usage of the phrase catbird seat to this story. [1] Mrs. Barrows likes to use the phrase. Another character, Joey Hart, explains that Mrs. Barrows must have picked up the expression from the baseball broadcaster Red Barber and that to Barber, "sitting in the catbird seat" meant "'sitting pretty,' like a batter with three balls and no ...
Catbird. White-eared catbird. Gray catbird. A gray catbird voicing cat-like sounds at Wildwood Preserve Metropark, Ohio, US. Several unrelated groups of songbirds are called catbirds because of their wailing calls, which resemble a cat 's meowing. The genus name Ailuroedus likewise is from the Greek for 'cat-singer' or 'cat-voiced'.
Geoffrey Chaucer. Geoffrey Chaucer (/ ˈtʃɔːsər / CHAW-sər; c. 1343 – 25 October 1400) was an English poet, author, and civil servant best known for The Canterbury Tales. [1] He has been called the "father of English literature", or, alternatively, the "father of English poetry". [2]
e. English literature is literature written in the English language from the English-speaking world. The English language has developed over more than 1,400 years. [1] The earliest forms of English, a set of Anglo-Frisian dialects brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon invaders in the fifth century, are called Old English.
Talking animals are a common element in mythology and folk tales, children's literature, and modern comic books and animated cartoons. Fictional talking animals often are anthropomorphic, possessing human-like qualities (such as bipedal walking, wearing clothes, and living in houses). Whether they are realistic animals or fantastical ones ...
t. e. Old English literature refers to poetry (alliterative verse) and prose written in Old English in early medieval England, from the 7th century to the decades after the Norman Conquest of 1066, a period often termed Anglo-Saxon England. [1] The 7th-century work Cædmon's Hymn is often considered as the oldest surviving poem in English, as ...
James Thurber. James Grover Thurber (December 8, 1894 – November 2, 1961) was an American cartoonist, writer, humorist, journalist and playwright. He was best known for his cartoons and short stories, published mainly in The New Yorker and collected in his numerous books. Thurber was one of the most popular humorists of his time and ...