Waldman et al1 present county-level correlations to suggest that in 3 US states during the latter part of the 20th century, the occurrence of autism was associated with relatively high levels of precipitation. In the next few paragraphs I will: (1) provide the basis for my opinion that this observation may well not lead to any insights into the etiologies of autism and (2) argue that the authors' analysis and the editor's decision to publish it are to be lauded, despite the uncertain ultimate contribution of this work and the possibility (likelihood?) that nonprofessionals are going to misinterpret and misuse it.