 THE VANISHING HOTEL
“My hotel disappears each April, to be rebuilt each December,” said Yngve Bergqvist resignedly, during
breakfast at the House of Sweden recently. He created the amazing IceHotel near Kiruna airport, above
the Arctic Circle in Swedish Lapland. "The Torne is its mother,” says Bergqvist, “because we build it using
the exceptionally clear ice cut from the frozen Torne River nearby.” Forget igloos; the IceHotel is an
architectural marvel of sculptured
columns, artworks, chandeliers,
beds, benches and tables – all
carved from ice. Guests, warmly
outfitted by the hotel, stay a night
“on the ice,” then usually transfer
to the warm hotel and chalets
on-site. How does the public
take to this? “We have 96 percent
occupancy,” said Yngve happily,
“but of course, it ends in April,
when the sun sends the melting
hotel back into the Torne.”
It was only on loan from the
river.
BASSINETS AND BOOTIES Debbie Dingell joined Rima Al-
Sabah at the Kuwait embassy tohost
Norah O’Donnell’s shower.
The mama-to-be, of NBC and
MSNBC, will be rocking twins
soon. A boy and a girl, say Norah
and her restaurateur
husband Geoff Tracy
(Chef Geoff ’s ) .
Rima’s signature
red roses filled the
azure atrium pool;
countless Middle
Eastern treats were
on the table; “I only
expected a cup of
tea and a cookie!”
said one first-time
visitor. Cheering
Norah on as she
opened presents
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were Anita McBride, chief of staff
to First Lady Laura Bush; and the
wives of three cabinet secretaries:
Edie Gutierrez (Commerce),
Marcia Jackson (Housing and
Urban Development), and Meryl
Chertoff (Homeland Security).
A few of the others present
included Marlene Malek, Grace
Bender, NBC’s Barbara Harrison
and former White House social
secretary Lea Berman. Table
favors were life-size Belgian
chocolate baby shoes, ordered
by Rima from California. No
guest left shoeless.
NEW ORLEANS ON MY MIND At Strathmore Music Center’s Big
Easy Ball, a traditional dinner, from
Cajun prawns to Bananas Foster, led
to the auditorium, where trumpeter
Irvin Mayfield and his brilliant New
Orleans Jazz Orchestra thrilled the
crowd. Mayfield, state and federally
dubbed “Cultural Ambassador of
New Orleans” for promoting the
city’s unique jazz; now dedicates his
work to his father, who drowned in
Hurricane Katrina. (Mayfield’s dirge
for him, heartfelt and beautiful,
moved many to tears). But this
was a New Orleans ball, and soon
everyone, carnival bead-draped,
headed to hear the waiting Dr. John,
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