Scandinavian

In the wee hours of June 3, a lightning bolt hit Dane Decor's flagship Downingtown store and ignited a major blaze. Though firefighters were able to save the 19th-century former church building that was part of the showroom complex, the rest of the 35,000-square-foot location went up in smoke. Along with it, $1 million worth of furniture was destroyed. You might think Dane Decor's owners would be discouraged by this turn of events. Not the four Hamilton brothers, who run the home-furnishings business their mother started 33 years ago. "It was 2 or 3 in the morning when we realized it wasn't going to be saved," says Carl Hamilton, 55, who stayed on the scene with his siblings, contemplating the smoking rubble, until 6 a.m. "That's when I went home and started calling architects.

For almost two decades, Philadelphia has been host to the International Children's Festival, one of the world's most respected performing-arts events for kids. This year's festival will start Wednesday and highlight groups from Scandinavian countries, including a circus from Finland, slapstick comedy from Denmark, and clowns from Norway (and Switzerland). Festival director Brian Joyce travels the world searching for shows to invite to Philly. He has great respect for his target audience: area children.

Bjarne E. Pettersen, 73, a retired baker who aided thousands of Norwegian and Swedish sailors in Philadelphia over more than 40 years, died of cancer Saturday at his home in Lansdowne. A native of Hvaler Island, Norway, Mr. Pettersen came to the United States in 1951 and was a member and leader at the Norwegian Seamen's Mission in Philadelphia. He arranged bus tours to other cities, shopping sprees, picnics, and entertainment and published a newsletter for Norwegian and Swedish seamen, said his wife of six years, Betty F. Engh Pettersen.

Out of hundreds of malls in the United States, Willow Grove Park was the choice of 23 Scandinavian marketing executives to visit. Yesterday they heard Lynda Benedetto talk about the mall's operating practices and successes, including its Malls to Zoo fund-raising event.

Forget 'heritage,' just cut the hair! Once again, the archdiocese of Philadelphia has reared its hypocritical head. They now say it is OK to wear "faddish" hairstyles. I went through 12 years of this hypocrisy. My hair was not allowed to pass my collar but because the three children at St. Rose of Lima claim it's "part of our heritage," now it's OK. According to my "heritage," our men wore the hair long to protect their necks from the cold Scandinavian winters and blustery North Sea winds!

Dust off that floral-chintz chair your grandmother gave you and brush up on your painting techniques. Stow your brass-and-glass coffee table in the attic for a while and replace it with one framed in iron. Forget American style and think of the English, French and Scandinavian countryside. That's the news from the Southern Furniture Market, where manufacturers recently introduced their fall showing of furniture and accessory designs for 32,000 retail buyers. With 1,600 exhibitors, there was something for every taste level and budget, but upscale country looks and dressy upholstery designs dominated.

The battle raged for hours. Armed with their knowledge of etymology, 43 stood against one another. In the end, only one was left. He was 11-year-old Eric Braverman of Cherry Hill, and for the second year in a row, he proved he was the ultimate Word Warrior among his peers in South Jersey and Delaware. He did it by correctly spelling dalliance. Seemingly unperturbed by the crowd of 300 that looked on, Braverman won the 22d Annual South Jersey and Delaware Spelling Bee yesterday sponsored by The Inquirer.

STOCKHOLM - Norwegian crime novelist Jo Nesbo says his success in fields as diverse as literature, music, finance and sports is the result of his being "stupid, brave, and lucky. " The 51-year-old Nesbo was a professional soccer player, stockbroker, and rock musician before he started writing crime novels. The Snowman , the fifth book in his series about detective Harry Hole, is being released in the United States this week, after being a best-seller for three months in Britain.

AMC's The Killing , returning for its second season on April 1, has been called one of TV's most original murder mysteries. Its intricate story structure is unique, following a single murder case - the abduction and murder of high school student Rosie Larsen - over two 13-episode seasons. Its hero is one of a kind, an obsessive, monomaniacal, lone-wolf detective. But it isn't original at all: The Killing is a remake, a copy, of the Danish mystery Forbrydelsen (literally, "the crime")

As an infantryman in Vietnam for a year, Ed Dougherty said he was a target. Only 45 of the 113 men in his unit returned home. He was one of them, though not unscathed: He earned a Purple Heart - along with two Bronze Stars - for combat injuries. "I'm lucky. Those other guys weren't," the Linwood, Pa., resident said yesterday. "I got home and got a chance to live my dream. " The dream was to play professional golf. Yesterday, that dream grew even sweeter with his first victory on the Senior PGA Tour in the $1.6 million Coldwell Banker Burnet Classic at Coon Rapids, Minn.

AMC's The Killing , returning for its second season on April 1, has been called one of TV's most original murder mysteries. Its intricate story structure is unique, following a single murder case - the abduction and murder of high school student Rosie Larsen - over two 13-episode seasons. Its hero is one of a kind, an obsessive, monomaniacal, lone-wolf detective. But it isn't original at all: The Killing is a remake, a copy, of the Danish mystery Forbrydelsen (literally, "the crime")

We sure have come a long way since Out of Africa and The Flame Trees of Thika . In the second decade of the 21st century, some of the most compelling contemporary crime-fiction novels are either set in or coming from Africa. Much as Scandinavia became associated with the genre a few years back - thanks in large part to Stieg Larsson's Millennium trilogy - Africa may become a new capital of literary crime. At the forefront is Roger Smith, a director and screenwriter who lives in Cape Town, South Africa, and writes with the brutal beauty of an Elmore Leonard in a very bad mood.

By Jo Nesbø Alfred A. Knopf. 400 pp. $25.95 Reviewed by Peter Rozovsky The next Stieg Larsson was once in demand as a teller of ghost stories. "I thought for a while it was because I was a great storyteller," Jo Nesbø says. "Later on, I think it was my big brother who told me the reason why they wanted me to tell the stories was because when I told them, they could hear the fear in my voice. " Fear and suspense have much to do with the best parts of The Snowman , fifth of the star Norwegian crime writer's novels available in the United States.

STOCKHOLM - Norwegian crime novelist Jo Nesbo says his success in fields as diverse as literature, music, finance and sports is the result of his being "stupid, brave, and lucky. " The 51-year-old Nesbo was a professional soccer player, stockbroker, and rock musician before he started writing crime novels. The Snowman , the fifth book in his series about detective Harry Hole, is being released in the United States this week, after being a best-seller for three months in Britain.

Kurt Wallander slouches back to American TV Sunday, looking like he hasn't slept - and may never sleep again. For the next three Sundays at 9 p.m., Masterpiece Mystery! will show "Wallander II," three new installments of the adventures of the rumpled, agonized police detective based in Ystad, Sweden. In the first, "Faceless Killers," Wallander faces greed, racism and revenge. For starters. Kenneth Branagh - who also is one of the executive producers - returns in his Emmy-nominated, British Academy of Film and Television Arts Award-winning role as Wallander, from the celebrated novels by Swedish master Henning Mankell.

On first glance the name Cuddle Magic sounds yucky, suggesting a fuzzy pink bear in an "I Heart U" T-shirt. But hear out this truly distinctive, Philadelphia/Brooklyn, N.Y.-based ensemble, and you'll understand. The name fits in a wondrously whimsical, imaginative yet decidedly grown-up way. Cuddle Magic is avant-garde lite, densely constructed yet playfully accessible. Many of the talents in this huge (like 12 strong) ensemble trained at the New England Conservatory, which is why this pop ensemble deploys strings, clarinet and vibraphone in such delicately finessed ways, alongside the more predictable guitars, keyboards and percussion.

We need not belabor the history of women's role in the marketing of beer: Suffice to say it has leaned heavily on the low-cut dirndl; and in one notable campaign, on a team of Swedish blondes clad in attire unsuited for a Scandinavian winter. The history of women in the making of beer, on the other hand, is another matter. Put out the call for a roundtable of women brewers hereabouts, and, well, all you'll need is a small booth. If that. So in the mammoth beer hall of Downingtown's Victory Brewing last week, it was refreshing to encounter - over a Korean short-rib sandwich and a pint of dark Donneybrook Stout (at 3.4 percent alcohol, a good lunch beer)

By Walter Mosley Riverhead. 326 pp. $25.95 Reviewed by Dan DeLuca Walter Mosley has left Easy Rawlins in the past in Los Angeles and moved east to modern-day New York with Leonid Trotter McGill. "LT" is a trained-boxer private dick with a criminal past and a jaundiced eye. He's a middle-aged, African American, contemporary Chandleresque tough guy with a Thou shalt not kill but may happily beat thine adversary to a pulp moral code. He's a short, stocky, balding, guilt-ridden, hot-tempered detective with a soft heart who is locked in a loveless marriage with a cold Scandinavian beauty even more disloyal than he is, and he's raising three children, only one of them his own. A trusted fixer for powerful Manhattan elites and sworn enemy to many a member of law enforcement, the well-read son of a Communist father who renamed himself Tolstoy, McGill between occupies a dubiously obtained office suite in a gleaming Manhattan skyscraper.

Those twinkling lights and front-lawn Rudolphs may suggest that Christmas is already here. But at Gloria Dei (Old Swedes') Church in South Philadelphia, the holy season of Advent comes first, ushered in by St. Lucy and her candlebearers lighting up December's gloom. For 71 years, this historic church on Columbus Boulevard has celebrated the birth of Christ and the triumph of light over darkness with a series of luminous, centuries-old services called Lucia Fest. Mostly sung, in Swedish and English, and repeated eight times over three days, each service is capped by the arrival of a young Sankta Lucia.

Even collecting seems to be accelerating in this fast-paced world of ours. Midcentury-modern pieces are tried-and-true stars, with great 21st-century furniture already being resold at "design" auctions. Philadelphia dealers Gary and Janet Calderwood are best known for the high-end French art deco furniture they exhibit at major antique shows and their Spruce Street gallery. But, moving with the times, they opened a new 3,500-square-foot space this week to showcase design material from 1950 to 2000, with a focus on the '60s and '70s.