Digested week: falling ice, and other perils of New York's high life | Emma Brockes

This week, while most New Yorkers feared death by icefall, others had more rarefied concerns

In his novel Upstate, the critic and novelist James Wood characterises the experience of walking through New York City as a feeling, mild but insistent, that something is going to fall on my head". In the summer, traditionally, the threat is from air conditioning units. (The Village Voice, Gawker, and the New York Times have all looked into this urban legend over the years, without coming up with much data - anecdotally, plunging air conditioners seem to account for about four deaths every 10 years.) In the winter, particularly in a week of heavy snowfall like this one, the danger is falling ice.