Grimm: 3x16 “The Show Must Go On”

“Under such conditions, whatever is evil in

men’s natures comes to the front.”

Monroe: “I hate carnivals, they give me the creeps.”

I’m with Monroe on this one. Carnival came to Portland and my God, was it boring! The idea itself wasn’t that bad. Wesen as slaves at the carnival forced to woge over and over again for the entertainment of the crowd. But it took SO much of screen time, the show was repeated like three times. Why? It felt like it took ages to solve this one and even Rosalee going undercover didn’t save the situation.

Reign: 1x15 “The Darkness”

Nostradamus: “Evil is not a thing. It is not a condition. It is a choice.”

Our actions certainly define us. Bash was ready to stay and risk his life to protect Rowan and her family. Francis in a way feels responsible for Lola after their ‘that kind of night’ together and he wants to make sure she finds happiness. Mary pretty much covered all spectrum of emotions from guilt of keeping a secret to jealousy that made her push Lola into a loveless marriage to regretting her actions ten minutes later. Then of course there was Henry. What the heck is going on with him? I’m not entirely sure where they are going with this, but I’m already not a fan of this new development. Within the space of few minutes he lost all his appeal, gained too much of delusion of grandeur and quite frankly scared me a bit.

Grimm: 3x15 “Once We Were Gods"

“You shall not become corrupt,

you shall not become putrid,

you shall not become worms.”

Monroe: “But we were Gods once. What happened?”

So, lots of Egyptian gods were Wesen. That's why they are depicted as animal-like creatures on the tomb walls. That actually makes sense.  

L for 'Lucky Lizard'

"A to Z from Sol" – your guide to some well-known or less-known interesting and unexpected facts about wine. Maybe you will learn something new, maybe you will remember something you have forgotten, either way read on and as always feel free to share your thoughts in the comment section.

 

What does “Lucky Lizard” on the wine label mean? That was one of the questions we were asked during one of our regular quiz/tasting session. We were shown the picture of an Australian white wine, but were told that the wine doesn’t matter, what matters is the label. Much to our surprise a totally off the cuff answer we gave turned out to be a correct one.

There are so many lizards in the area that sometimes they get caught in the press, but the plate of the press doesn’t go all the way down leaving a little space on the bottom. That gap is enough for lizard to survive the crushing force of the press. Thus the name of the wine, “Lucky Lizard”.

I suppose only experts and operators of the press can know this for sure, so if you are one of them, let us know if there is any truth to this story.

Reign: 1x14 “Dirty Laundry”

Mary: “And so the politics and backstabbing begin.” 

I always avoid spoilers, but I caught a glimpse of Olivia’s return on some of the sites and quite honestly was dreading this episode. After such a strong previous episode it is naturally to dial things down a bit, but having an episode centered on Olivia didn’t sound good at all. What a nice surprise that it wasn’t. She had very little screen time, and when she had some she was mostly out of it. What we had instead was a fantastic episode; bad decisions, hurt feelings, harsh words and even some deaths, so it was no where  near “light”, but  I was smiling like an idiot throughout this whole Bohemian affair. Catherine was spectacular as usual, and of course we had our love triangle that is a triangle no more, except it sort of still is.

Grimm: 3x14 "Mommy Dearest"

“I am going off to a house and entering it like a snake…

I will devour their babes and make their hearts ache. ”

Wu: “What the hell is that?”

Grimm is not a horror television. It is somewhat scary, but it is not horror. I remember I found pilot to be quite frightening, but they have dialed it down a bit since then. Having said that, this wesen could easily give nightmares, it and a scary baby.

Reign: 1x13 “The Consummation”

Marie de Guise: “Your magic has changed. How silly and marvelous.”

Well, that happened.

Grimm: 3x13 "Revelation"

“Still, after a short time the family’s distress again worsened, 

and there was no relief anywhere in sight.”

Monroe: “Oh, what, you got a few more cultural clichés for me to live by, or what?”

Nick lives! So do Monroe’s parents! Not that I was worried that any of them would get eaten up.  Did you? To be honest I wasn’t thinking much of that last scene of the previous episode because it seemed it aired ages ago.

B for "Bordeaux mixture"

"A to Z from Sol" – your guide to some well-known or less-known interesting and unexpected facts about wine. Maybe you will learn something new, maybe you will remember something you have forgotten, either way read on and as always feel free to share your thoughts in the comment section.

Bordeaux mixture (fr. bouillie bordelaise) 

Mix copper sulfate with slaked lime in right proportions and there it is! Famous and effective fungicide, used by winegrowers to prevent infestations of all sorts (downy mildew, black rot etc.). Invented in the Bordeaux region of France (thus the name) in the late 19th century, this bluish liquid is sprayed on grapes, but only as a preventive measure, apparently it doesn’t work if you use it after the fungus had been found.

France being France there is of course a less scientific but much more romantic story about the origin of la bouillie bordelaise. As the legend goes thieves were a nightmare for wine-makers at that time, so to prevent them from stealing grapes, winegrowers came up with this special liquid. Light blue color of the mixture made the grapes look  less appetizing for thieves. How credible this story is, that’s for you to decide.

Reign: 1x12 “Royal Blood”

Lord Hugo: “I marvel that you could have been brought up at court and still understand it so poorly.”

Yes, that certainly is a recurring theme. Neither Mary, who spent all her somewhat adult life in a convent, nor Bash, who’s been at court yet barely paid any attention to anything that was happening there, know what to do, how to rule the country and, most importantly, how not to rule the country. So far those two have been making one bad decision after another. All in all Mary and Bash seem to have bitten a lot more than they can chew.