The catbird seat
I always liked the term “the catbird seat”, though it’s not in common usage these days, so it’s not a great one to drop in the supermarket when making idle chitty chat (oiseau) with the cashier. Its origin is a short story by James Thurber.
The number 60 bus was the first local bus a lot of Sheffield students would catch when they started university in the city, as it would run past the halls of residence in Broomhill, to the University, into the city and sometimes beyond. I felt a pang of sadness when I learned that the route was replaced in 2009.
Nothing could go wrong. Nothing at all!
So is Claire the target for Dean, or is it Claire’s Nuisance? Creeped out by option 1 and confused by option 2. With all those open seats, if Dean is to sit on one side of Claire, the Nuisance will just sit on the other.
The Nuisance. I’m pretty sure Claire is acting as bait for her.
She’s bait for the Nuisance, her jumper’s bait for Dean.
And Claire will stand up and get off the bus, leaving nothing but an empty seat between the two. Only question is which one will shove over? My bet’s on the Nuisance.
I believe Dan is meant to drive The Nuisance away, but could this be a case of the cure being worse than the disease?
Dayymmnn. So Claire and Dean together are their mutual salvation? I don’t recall that anybody mentioned that as a possibility. Ingenious on Lottie’s part I must say. And, of course, John’s.
Whoever would have pegged Dean as the Kind Sensative Boi of Claire’s dreams? Love really Love really is blind!
No no no no no no no
I’ve been a Thurber fan since I was a kid. As soon as I saw that phrase, I thought of Thurber.
I thought of Red Barber.
My first and only exposure to the phrase was John Goodman’s character in Raising Arizona (“You and I’ll be sitting in the fabled catbird seat.”). I’m ashamed to say I had never encountered the Thurber short story. Something new to find and read…
Yeah, the Wikipedia entry contradicts itself when it says that, per the OED, (a) Thurber’s story is its first recorded usage, and (b) the story got it from Red Barber. Unless they are being awfully nice with their use of “recorded” there, I guess
The Wikipedia entry isn’t contradicting itself. The Oxford DOES list Thurber as the first recorded use of the term, and Barber IS known to have used it. The Oxford goes by “earliest known example in writing”. Even without that distinction, early radio was live, and wasn’t recorded in any way- just having people claim they heard a term earlier can’t be counted as a “recorded usage”. And, of course, the Wikipedia article doesn’t say anywhere that Thurber’s use was the first- just that the Oxford lists Thurber as the earliest recorded usage, which it does.
Thurber himself credits Barber, which settles the priority; Barber’s work would not have generated any other print citations. And although Thurber drank himself to death as long ago as 1961, Red Barber was still going strong on NPR until what seems like yesterday, at the age of approximately 141.
I thought of Barber, then Thurber.
Let’s hope the kids get Claire’s personality.
Nuisance and Dean start it up, Claire slips out
Clear path to victory from here
Will the Nuisance move in with Glam, Dean and Lottie and become a Serious Annoyance?
They’re from completely different parts of society, and Dean strikes me as a snob. I’m not sure this will work out as simply as Lottie hopes, but I can see Claire seeing a “sensitive side” to Dean that astonishes, astounds and appalls the rest of the cast.
I think Claire’s just the decoy- dressed like that, Lottie knew Dean would go straight to her. I suspect Lottie’s counting on the Nuisance to also head directly for Claire, as she apparently always does.
Get them talking to each other, then Claire slips away.
Sorry Lottie, but this plan can’t end well. Expecially for poor Claire between two powerful nuisances! Or maybe… Claire seems to appreciate Dean’s company… NOOOOO!!!
As the two storylines…
…cross-pollenate.
Oh yes. I can see where this is going. Ohohoho.
I thought this storyline was a bit exploitative. Glad to see Lottie’s plans going aft agley.
Solver is a comic about doing people a favour, not doing them down. I love even my most monstrous creations. A bad personality should be no barrier to a good life.
On this one sentence, all my hopes are pinned.
Somehow this reminds me of an old joke:
A lawyer dies and goes to hell. As he is being prodded along by pitchfork-wielding demons, he sees a former colleague having sex with a beautiful woman. “Hey!” he says to the demons. “Why am I being tortured but this other lawyer is having sex with a beautiful woman?” “Silence!” says a demon, stabbing him extra hard. “Who are you to question that woman’s punishment?”
Hm, doesn’t Rich’s fate somewhat belie this? (Not that I am in any way objecting to Rich’s fate. There are characters who seemed to be gone for good that I was glad to see return–Eustace, Erin–but in Rich’s case I think I will be gladder if he stays gone.)
Why!? Why are they sitting in the doom seats? I am filled with irrational fear for Claire and Lottie.
Buses are outcroppings of an alternate reality, where anything sufficiently bizarre can happen. Surely Douglas Adams addressed this somewhere.
I note that this comic took Labor Day off, and I want to applaud the creeping Americanism that represents.
I most certainly did not take Labor Day off! There was a page on Monday 5th! Opprobrium!
And Canadianism! — cough cough!
Except in Canada it’s ~Labour Day~
And it’s pronounced “lah-BOOR”.
I’m wagering 50/50 that this will go as planned…….any takers?
20/80. Dean don’t like people that speak too much and Claire’s nuisance is a chatterbox. I think is more probable than Dean will like Claire.
Oh my glob you’re right.
So the plan is that Dean will dress down the Nuisance in a way that she never boards the No 60 again and Claire will then bow out of the bus with a “my knight” on the side thus leaving Dean alone but strangely exhiliarated?
This is my favorite proposed outcome so far. May it be so.
I only know Dickbutt. Who *would* need a special seat on the bus, come to think of it
I am getting a distinctly Dirk Gently connectedness-of-all-things feeling to this plan.