how much longer?

Possibly a while. Beans are one of those annoying "cook until done" foods.

And add salt after they're done. I think they'll taste lovely.

Wow, that is an impressive gathering. I was glad to hear Katehi condemn the policemen's actions in no uncertain terms, but I do wonder how much of that is trying to save her own ass. Please note - I know nothing of her.

Being very hungry, I have given up on the beans for the evening. I made cheese toast with leftover bacon. I shall attempt the beans again on the morrow.

I just cooked some black beans on Saturday, and they took about 2 hours to cook. And they still had a bit of chew to them.

Nora, did you presoak them?

Not overnight, but for a couple hours.

I default to lentils now because they cook so much more quickly and don't need soaking (ETA: and are delicious and I love them). Having said that, OMG have I had a lot of lentils over the past couple of months. I may need to try beans again. But I've never been happy with beans I've made that started out dry, even following directions WRT soaking, simmering, etc. I usually get canned and go from there. I feel like a dry bean preparing failure, is what.

Discover link:

... Together, these results suggest that an actual interaction is not a necessary prerequisite for the cognitive impairment effect to occur. ...

So, the mere suspicion of the possible presence of a woman impairs heterosexual men's cognitive performance? Men are smarter when women are nowhere around them? That seems ridiculous to me. I've heard hetero men say women are really distracting, but surely (most) men learn at some point after adolescence to overcome this tendency to be distracted by women. It sounds like another way to blame women for things going wrong. "Of course I failed the test! A woman passed me in the hall! I couldn't think anymore!" I dunno.

And I've decided to go to Chicago for my birthday, so I can eat at my brother's restaurant and attend his yearly holiday party and play with his dogs.

I am going to try to get there when I'm in Chicago in December! Maybe for lunch Wed. the 21st. And I'm so sorry you are having to go through all that with your mom. ugh. My dad had similar issues with his folks -- mom with dementia who was pretty tractable but dad had parkinsons and absolutely refused to let anyone help the two of them. Eventually my dad had to get power of attorney (after somebody found my grandfather fallen on the floor and my grandmother completely unaware of what was up and they'd been like that for a couple of days). He was able to get them into a care facility where my grandfather had to wear an alarmed cuff on his ankle, otherwise he'd try to run off. It was an incredibly stressful time for all involved. I hope your folk's situation can be eased in some way soon.

Matilda is watching Yellow Submarine for the first time:

The Beatles: All the lonely people - where do they all come from?

Matilda: They come from America!

The Beatles: Where do they all belong?

Matilda: JULY!

I am crabby crabby mccrabby cakes. crabbiness is my superpower.