Catbird seat

    有利位置、要职     

    Catbird是"猫鹊", seat是"座位"。Catbird seat是什么意思呢？请看对话：

    A: What good luck has John run into? He bought a Porche!

    B: He was promoted last month. His appointment as managing director put him in the catbird seat. He earns much more than before.

    A: Perhaps he deserves it after all. He is the biggest workaholic I've ever known.

    B: Isn't he? So I guess most of the time his Porche will be parked at the underground lot of his office building while he sits before his desktop.

    Note: Mocking birds are sometimes referred to as catbirds. They typically sit at the top of a tree. Hence the catbird seat is at the top. So the phrase means "a situation of advantage or superiority." This is an American idiom, popularized in the 1940s by sportscaster Red Barber. He used to say a certain team was in the catbird seat.