According to legend, the film statue, Oscar, got its name because it looked like somebody's uncle.  Tony, the theater's highest award, is an abbreviation of Antoinette Perry.  Here's how Emmy got her name.  Emmy history goes back to the first ceremony.  The TV Academy's constitution empowers it to "recognize outstanding achievement in the television industry be conferring annual awards of merit as an incentive for achievement within the industry..."  In 1948, Charles Brown, then president of the young organization, named a committee to select award winners for the year.  He also asked for suggestions on a symbol and what it should be called.  Some thought "Iconoscope" (for large orthicon tube) would be an impressive title, but it was pointed that it would be shortened for "Ike," a name reserved for Dwight Eisenhower.  Another television favorite was "Tilly" (for television).  But in the end, Emmy, a derivative for Immy (a nickname for the image orthicon tube) was chosen. The name was suggested by pioneer television engineer, Harry Lubcke (president of the Academy in 1949-50).

http://www.capitalemmys.tv/emmys/how-emmy%C2%AE-got-her-name

THREE DAYS IN SPAIN  September 2015:   We began with a guided tour of Barcelona, and then took our own walking tours to markets, churches and museums.  A special night started with a tapas dinner (including Crema Catalana) followed by a flamenco show at Tablao Cordobes.  See http://www.tablaocordobes.es/en  See also http://www.tablaocordobes.es/en/tablao-flamenco-barcelona/flamenco  and Flamenco at Tablao Cordobés, Las Ramblas, Barcelona

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9AkHtAS7No  5:04  The particular show (partly improvisational) we watched is different than in the video.  There was a playful interaction between entreating singers, disdainful dancers, and calm guitarists playing in their upper registers.  Dancers provided percussion with foot stamps, snaps, taps, claps and castanets.  Singers also supplied plenty of clapping. 

History of Flamenco  http://www.classicalguitarmidi.com/history/flamenco.html

Crema Catalana or Catalan Cream is the Catalan name and version of the French dessert, crème brulée.  It is also called Crema de Sant Josep, or St. Joseph’s cream.  Find recipe at http://spanishfood.about.com/od/dessertssweets/r/cremacatalanar.htm

Barcelona Cooking Class with Marta:  Catalan Paella

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yak2jGi5pb4  7:58

Barcelona-Style Rice recipe courtesy of Tyler Florence  http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/tyler-florence/barcelona-style-rice-recipe.html

Barcelona is the capital of the autonomous region of Catalonia, the most northeasterly corner of Spain bordering France.  The region has four provinces:  Barcelona, Girona, Lleida and Tarragona.  Modernism was born in Barcelona, and its best known proponent is Antoni Gaudí.  Gaudí s Parque Güell, Palacio Güell, Casa Milà, La Sagrada Familia, and La Pedrera are tourist attractions.  Painters Salvador Dali and Joan Miro were born in Barcelona, and Pablo Picasso spent his formative years here.  In the first millenium B.C. the lands around Barcelona were settled by the agrarian Laeitani, while other parts of Catalonia were colonised by Iberians.  Carthaginians from New Carthage in southern Spain named Barcelona after Hamil Barca, father of Hannibal who led his army of elephants from Catalonia over the Pyrenees and Alps to attack Rome.  In reprisal, Romans began the subjugation of the whole Iberian peninsula, wiping out the Cathaginians as well as the Laeitani.  When the Roman Empire collapsed, the Visigoths based in Toulouse moved in to fill the vacuum.  The Catalan language has been outlawed more than once.  Today it is spoken by about eight million people including in Andorra and the Balearic Islands.  Barcelona & Catalonia  DK Eyewitness Travel

Seven properties built by the architect Antoni Gaudí (1852–1926) in or near Barcelona  http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/320

Casa Milà, popularly known as ‘La Pedrera’ (the stone quarry), an ironic allusion to the resemblance of its façade to an open quarry, was constructed between 1906 and 1912 by Antoni Gaudí.  For its uniqueness, artistic and heritage value have received major recognition and in 1984 was inscribed on UNESCO World Heritage List, for its exceptional universal value.  Nowadays it is the headquarters of Catalunya-La Pedrera Foundation and houses a cultural centre that is a reference point in Barcelona for the range of activities it organises and the different spaces for exhibitions and other public uses it contains.

https://www.lapedrera.com/en/what-is-casa-mila  See also http://www.barcelona-tourist-guide.com/en/albums-en/gaudi-pedrera/

Bullfighting was banned in the Spanish autonomous community of Catalonia by a vote of the Catalan Parliament in July 2010.  The ban came into effect on 1 January 2012.  The last bullfight in the region took place in Barcelona in September 2011.  The ban, which ended a centuries-old tradition in the region, was supported by animal rights activists but opposed by some, who saw it as motivated by political nationalism rather than animal welfare.  There is a movement to revoke the ban in the Spanish congress, citing the value of bullfighting as "cultural heritage."  The proposal is backed by the majority of parliamentarians.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ban_on_bullfighting_in_Catalonia

For more than 50 years, Adrian Frutiger made the world legible.  A type designer who died on Sept. 10, 2015 in his native Switzerland, Mr. Frutiger created some of the most widely used fonts of the 20th century, seen daily in airports, on street signs and in subway stations around the world.  Mr. Frutiger, whose career spanned the era of hot lead and the age of silicon, created some 40 fonts, a vast number for one lifetime.  Praised for an elegant readability that belied their rigorous engineering, his typefaces over the years have graced signs in the Paris Métro and many international airports, and on Swiss highways and some London streets.  His best-known fonts include Univers, employed throughout the design of the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, and Frutiger, ubiquitous on airport signage, including that of John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York and Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris.  Perhaps Mr. Frutiger’s most ubiquitous typeface is also the least obtrusive:  OCR-B, the optical-character font he designed in 1968, adopted five years later as the world standard.  Margalit Fox  Read much more and see pictures at http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/20/arts/design/adrian-frutiger-dies-at-87-his-type-designs-show-you-the-way.html?_r=0

"#BalancingAct", by Toledoan Calvin Babich, was installed September 15, 2015 at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum in Grand Rapids, MI as part of ArtPrize 2015.  See a video at https://www.facebook.com/CalvinBabichBalancingActArtPrize2015/videos/vb.926754697346919/985632831459105/?type=2&theater  ArtPrize Seven is an art competition that has more than 1,500 works of art at over 160 venues covering three square miles in Grand Rapids.  The event runs September 23-October 11, 2015.  http://www.artprize.org/

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 1349  September 21, 2015  On this date in 1937, J. R. R. Tolkien's The Hobbit was published.  On this date in 1964, Malta gained independence from the United Kingdom.