My dried beans would not soften no matter how long I cooked them

I bought a bag of pinto beans for a dollar fifty and tried to make a big pot for the week. I soaked them overnight and cooked them for over four hours, but they were still hard as rocks... I finally found out the water in my area is too hard for beans. I had to add a tiny pinch of baking soda to the pot, and then they softened up in about an hour. Has anyone else had this happen with their tap water?

Heard a doc say they found a 3,000 year old olive pit in a dig near Athens and it made me think about daily life back then

Hit 1000 cups on my cheap espresso machine and I'm kind of shocked

I got this little machine as a gift three years ago and just hit the brew count on my kitchen notepad. I figured it would break down after maybe 500, but it's still pulling shots that taste fine to me. Part of me thinks I should upgrade now, but another part says if it works, why fix it? Has anyone else run a basic machine way past what you thought it could handle?

Warning: I tried to get my friend into comics with the MCU movies first, but it totally backfired.

Started them with the films, but they got confused by all the changes from the source material. Anyone have a better character or series to start someone with instead?

My grandma's old pickle crock is still going strong after 40 years

I was helping her clean the basement yesterday and she pointed at it, saying 'that thing has seen more brine than the ocean'... It's just a simple stoneware pot, no fancy airlock or anything. She still uses it every fall for her sour pickles. Made me think about how we get caught up in all the new gear sometimes. Anyone still using a family piece like that, or is it all modern jars now?

Question about using a warm towel trick for stubborn blackheads

I had a client last week with really tough blackheads on her nose that my usual extraction tools just weren't getting. I remembered an old tip from a class and tried holding a hot, damp towel over the area for a full five minutes before starting. It softened everything up so much that the extractions were way easier and less painful for her. Do you guys have a specific time or temp you aim for when you do this?