In a link in a post on AP the author wrote " Iran is in the catbird's seat".The meaning of that could only be guessed at by a Briton. M-W says what a catbird is, an American songbird. It gives 'catbird seat' as a position of advantage.What it doesn't give is why a songbird would have a seat or the origin of the expression. Anyone got the answer?

It is from a short story from James Thurber, if I remember correctly. I love short stories, they always carry an irony or life lesson. The Norton Anthology of Short Stories is an excellent collection. Several of my favorites are in it: The Lottery, A Good Man is Hard to Find, The Doll, The Necklace, The Other Side of the Hedge, Young Goodman Brown. I could go on and on.

http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-cat2.htm

Thanks VV
Thanks for the anthology reference.
I too like short stories. My own favourites are by Frank O'Connor and by Guy de Maupassant. (Is "The necklace" that you refer to the Maupassant story? It is interesting that that story is his best known yet not typical of his stories .His 'Boule de Suif' on the other hand is closer and, extraordinarily, was made the basis of John Wayne's first big film :Stagecoach ).

Yes, The Necklace is de Maupassant. Also, The Gift of the Magi by O Henry made me cry when I read it in 8th grade. Also, Poe's The Telltale Heart is one of the best stories ever written.

Actually, The Cask of Amontillado is a story I am drawing inspiration from for a song I'm writing. Maybe I should post it somewhere.

In the catbird seat is a peculiar expression which we hear every now and again. It was popularized by Red Barber, the announcer for L.A. Dodgers baseball games, in the late 1930s and early 1940s. However, the term had been around before he made it famous, at least according to him. He was born and raised in Mississippi, and so the phrase has been characterized as one of Southern (U.S.) origin. However, not even the Dictionary of American Regional English has references to the phrase earlier than 1943. Author James Thurber made the phrase more popular by using it in his work Carnival in 1945. Now that we've dispensed with the first date of use bit, we can tell you that in the catbird seat, which means "sitting pretty" or "in a good position", probably arose because the catbird is an American thrush which perches in the highest limbs of tall trees. Apparently that is considered a good position by human onlookers, but most certainly by the bird itself, offering an excellent vantage point and safety from ground-dwelling predators. By the way, it is called a catbird because one of its calls sounds like a cat's meow. - Take Our Word For It