August 1, 1994,

Question of the day: what is the difference between ‘on the rocks’ and ‘over crushed ice’? Just the fact that one set of diamonds is smashed into smithereens & the other is not?

Kalpita Pathak
Age 19

Don’t mind me … just an autistic human here, trying to figure out the meanings of some idioms (and creating an unintentionally hilarious mashup: ‘on the rocks’ with ‘rocks’ as diamonds 🪨 💎 🧊 😂 ).

Just a side note: contrary to popular belief, it’s not that all autistic people are unable to understand idioms. For example, I can understand them once they are explained to me and especially once I research them (special interest alert!). I just take them literally first, always. I now know ‘raining cats and dogs’ means raining a lot but I will forever see cats and dogs tumbling from the sky (and safely landing on the ground, the cats on their feet ’cause that’s what they do and the dogs on big fluffy pillows). I also tend not to use idioms because they aren’t accurate.

Any other autistic people have complicated relationships with idioms? 🙋🏾