Year: 1998

For most part, condo living is easy when snow isn’t melting

Jae-Ha Kim

Seven years ago, I decided to take the plunge and invest in a home. The greedy part of me wanted a house with a huge lawn, 2-car garage and a roomy basement. Then I thought about mowing the lawn eight months out of the year and, worse yet, shoveling snow for the remainder. Suddenly, a condo sounded like a better alternative. So I checked out various developments and eventually arranged to put down a deposit on a unit. When I got there at the appointed time, I learned the broker had sold the plot of land she had promised to me.

“Everest” sees past `because it’s there’

Jae-Ha Kim

After 12 hours of climbing, I had to force myself to concentrate,” says Jamling Norgay, a climbing leader in the latest Omnimax documentary “Everest.” “As the pain gets worse, I feel worse than I’ve ever felt . . . without passing over to the other side. But up here in the clouds, I touched my father’s soul.”

Jay Leno: ‘Celebrity-starved’ Chicago nice place for shows to visit

Jae-Ha Kim

Last week, the “Late Show” flew 461 Chicagoans to New York to watch a taping of David Letterman’s CBS talk show. And next week, Jay Leno brings his “Tonight Show” to the Rosemont Theatre for a week. The trip is a repeat performance for Leno, who brought his act here in 1996. Letterman broadcast his show from the Chicago Theatre for a week in 1989 and did a one-night stand two years ago at the Steppenwolf Theatre.

“A Cab Called Reliable” by Patti Kim

Jae-Ha Kim

Patti Kim shows the eloquent anguish of an abandoned child in her debut novel, A Cab Called Reliable (St. Martin’s, 156 pp., $18.95 . Her story is told through the eyes of 9-year-old Ahn Joo Cho, a Korean immigrant whose life changes forever when she sees her mother and little brother drive off in a cab. Without her. The last thing she remembers seeing is the word “reliable” on the car door.