Don't try to hang a clever moniker on Chicago -- America's midwestern metropolis moves too fast to be pinned down. What was once considered a gangster's paradise has evolved into an eclectic amalgam of transcendent architecture, world-class theater, and rabid sportsmanship.

Chicago's image has changed. No longer the "second city," the place that three million call home has acquired a first-class reputation around the world, particularly when it comes to the arts. Carl Sandburg's City of the Big Shoulders is now also City of the Big Limos on opening nights.

Exhibitions at the Art Institute of Chicago have drawn worldwide acclaim. You could spend days there drinking in the Impressionist paintings alone, then be happily transported into the 21st century by works at the bold Museum of Contemporary Art, which overlooks Lake Michigan.

Gutsy Steppenwolf Theater productions, from True West to The Libertine, have jolted critics on both coasts. The city's scores of other theaters, including the Victory Gardens, the Goodman, the Court, and the Shakespeare Repertory, regularly showcase the talents of remarkable local actors who just might turn out to be the next John Malkovich or Gary Sinise.

The Grammy-laden Chicago Symphony Orchestra wins standing ovations both at home and abroad. At the other end of the Loop (Chicago's central business district), the Lyric Opera's lavish productions boast world-class singers and conductors. The city's staggeringly varied architecture is lauded (and occasionally lambasted) around the globe. And don't forget film criticism and TV talk. The thumbs of Roger Ebert and the late Gene Siskel weighed heavily in the movie-review scale. And who doesn't know Oprah, Jenny Jones, or Jerry Springer?

This is also the home of the ground-breaking Second City improvisation and comedy club whose talented performers have included the brilliantly funny Mike Nichols and Elaine May, Jim and the late John Belushi, Bill Murray, and George Wendt. And even city hall, headed by no-nonsense mayor Richard M. Daley, lightens up in March by dyeing the Chicago River green in honor of St. Patrick.

Perhaps one reason Chicagoans have a sense of humor is the weather. As local film director Joel Sedelmaier contends, "Colder-than-hell winters saved this city." In an essay in Great Chicago Stories, he wrote, "If Chicago had weather like Florida, we'd be L.A. and I wouldn't wish that on anybody." Though residents complain that the city's four seasons are "winter, winter, winter, and the Fourth of July," at least on a winter day, when the snow is blowing horizontally across the Michigan Avenue Bridge, Chicagoans can duck into such popular clubs as Andy's, where there's hot jazz even at noon.