This is one of those weird and fascinating statistics.

[sara]

Bike helmets came up in discussion on a cycling listserv I read, and I referred the list to the BHSI site I linked to here earlier this year. And then, because the BHSI site is a giant black hole of data and I have a lot of phone calls to make this morning and I just loathe making phone calls, I started poking around, and came across these stats.

Did you know that more Americans were injured by beds, mattresses, and pillows in 2007 than bicycles, according to the Consumer Products Safety Commission? I am not surprised that "stairs, ramps, landings, and floors" are tops when it comes to injuries, having had a couple of bad falls on stairs myself (I was sober, dammit, I really was!) but...beds?

I suppose these figures may include injuries suffered while moving beds and jumping on beds, but still. When someone tells you your bicycling habit is really dangerous, you can point out that it's less dangerous than their sleeping habit, statistically speaking.

Mark Twain on bicycles

[aedifica]

After I posted that Mark Twain quote, laughingrat sent me a link to Twain's essay on bicycles:

Taming the Bicycle

(For modern comprehension, substitute "Neosporin" or "arnica" for "Pond's Extract.")

Crossposting to my own journal.