It's Saturday, and I will be watching the Hawaii-Tennessee Little League baseball game, plus range of NCAA football matches.  But first, a short entry. From the  New York Times: But the situation changed around 2015, with the death rate mostly rising over the next several years. One reason seems to be   distracted driving . By 2015, two-thirds of U.S. adults owned a smartphone, up from almost none in 2006.  This year, 115 Americans/day die on the road. Was the pandemic a factor? The most plausible theories tend to involve the mental health problems caused by Covid’s isolation and disruption. Alcohol and drug abuse have increased. Impulsive behavior, like running red lights and failing to wear seatbelts, also seems to have risen (as my colleague Simon Romero   has reported ). Many Americans have felt frustrated or unhappy, and it seems to have affected their driving. Ethnic death rate: Why is the Asian death rate so low? Week started with two Japanese pork dishes, tofu and tonkatsu: