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Slate contributor Mark Jordan Legan looks at what movie critics are saying about this weekend's major movie releases, including The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, XXX: State of the Union and Ladies in Lavender.

Scott Simon talks with Amanda Gotera, a senior in Cedar Falls, Iowa. She's a recipient of the Scholastic Publishing Company's Annual Writing Awards, and reads from some of her work.

In January 1856, fugitive slave Margaret Garner killed her infant daughter with a butcher knife rather than see her returned to bondage. Toni Morrison turned the story into the novel Beloved, and has now written an opera, Margaret Garner, which debuts Saturday. Detroit Public Radio's Celeste Headlee reports.

Rock critic Ken Tucker reviews the new CD by hip-hop artist Lyrics Born. It's called Same !@#$ Different Day.

The Director of Iraq's Museum of Antiquities talks about the looted treasures of Babylon, and the few that have made their way home.

Alex Chadwick talks with Slate contributor Edmund Levin about his exploration of a famous moment involving fine literature and fine pastry. The madeleine -- a delicate cookie -- was featured in Marcel Proust's literary masterwork, Remembrance of Things Past.

To navigate through the world, we give the physical things around us names. Sometimes the sound of the words themselves delights the ear; and for commentator Brian McConnachie, that's enough of a reason to marvel.

Day to Day television critic Andrew Wallenstein talks about two recent scandals regarding television personalities and the way the networks are handling them. Pat O'Brien, host of the gossip show The Insider, recently completed treatment for alcohol abuse, and Paula Abdul is accused of favoritism -- and maybe more -- in her role as judge on the hit show American Idol.

Has the power of the dark side been underestimated? Los Angeles Times film critic Kenneth Turan reviews Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, the final chapter of the Star Wars series. He says it's easily the best of the trio of Star Wars prequels.

Last Night is James Salter's second story collection, 15 years after he published Dusk. Salter give us an America rich and lustrous and poor enough in spirit to break your heart three times over.