Had a taxi cab driver today who was clearly on the spectrum

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I was taking a cab back from the hospital today and the cab driver asked me where I was going to. I said my street which is the name of a bird and I commented on that the neighborhood is called "birdland"(all the streets are named after birds), and I wondered if any other neighborhoods had similar descriptive names. I think that triggered this guy's special interest because he went on and on and on, talking about every last bird, and every last neighborhood he could think of that had a similar pattern of street names and then proceeded to name every street in each of those neighborhoods. He gave me an entire history of the the names of the streets in downtown, including how they came to have the name that each of them does.

He told me that he normally doesn't talk about this with others because people would make fun of him. I told him it was no problem with me, I don't mind at all and listened intently, asking questions here and there. He told me that he gets flack from the other drivers because they call him a know-it-all. He was a really friendly guy, in his 50's driving a cab all his life and seemed content and happy. I asked him if he was on the autism spectrum, and he said he didn't know what that was, then proceeded to return to talking about names of streets.

When we neared my house, which I described the vehicle in my driveway by its make and model that seemed to trigger his encyclopedic knowledge of all the car makes and models, an interest that I share myself, until he dropped me off at my house and we wished each other a nice a day. I think it makes me feel slightly better to know that someone who is clearly on the spectrum, never got diagnosed, and likely never received any specific help managed to find a meaningful and happy life for himself. It gives me hope for my own life, that I may one day have a meaningful existence too that I can be content and happy with. It also felt good to relate to him, to understand, when others probably write him off as just weird and make fun of him.

Very inspirational story.

This thread struck a chord with me, because I've got a sort of 'mild' obsession with surnames and their meanings, and I've been particularly struck by how many of them are birds.

Off the top of my head I can recall knowing or knowing of people with names like Sparrow, Crow, Raven, Pigeon, Eagle, Partridge, Duck, Parrot, Finch, Hawk, Goose, Gosling, Swan, Heron, Wren, Kite, Nightingale, Buzzard, Gull, and a few more. Oh, and Bird of course!

I wonder why this is?

Was Merlin named after a merlin, or was a merlin named after Merlin?
What a nice story!

I'm glad you guys liked it.