“When his young daughter requests a bunk bed for her room, a ‘quick fact check’ tells him that ‘about thirty-six thousand kids per year are taken to an emergency room following a bunk bed injury.’ Casner calculates that, if six per cent of the U.S. population is around his daughter’s age, then ‘one out of every five hundred kids in the country gets wheeled into the E.R. each year solely because of bunk beds.’ He continues, ‘How many kids even have bunk beds? What if it’s one in five? That would mean one percent of all kids with bunk beds are heading to the E.R.’ Bunk-bed request: denied.” The New Yorker on a book called Careful that lays out all the risks we face in our daily lives, mostly in our own homes. (Statistics suggest someone will break a toe after dropping this book.) Be Careful! Your Mind Makes Accidents Inevitable. (Even my Jewish mother is like, dude, seriously, chill.)

+ Lapham’s Quarterly: In Search of Fear, notes from a high-wire artist.