This story's protagonist abandons a half-baked plan in favor of taking his first-ever drink, smoking a cigarette, and claiming that he will be “coked to the gills” on heroin when he uses a bomb to blow up his boss Mr. Fitweiler. For 10 points each:
[10m] Name this New Yorker story in which Mr. Martin plots to “rub out” Mrs. Ulgine Barrows, who is fond of braying unusual expressions such as the one that includes the title phrase.
ANSWER: “The Catbird Seat”
[10e] “The Catbird Seat” is by this American humorist, who depicted a dull man's adventurous daydreams in his story “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.”
ANSWER: James (Grover) Thurber
[10h] Thurber's “The Greatest Man in the World” is included in a 1935 collection whose title ends with this five-word phrase, presumably chosen in reference to a popular, earlier, non-Thurber story about a starving writer.
ANSWER: “man on the flying trapeze” [accept The Middle-Aged Man on the Flying Trapeze or “The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze”] (The earlier story is by William Saroyan.)
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