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With some verbal sleight of hand, John Ciardi explores the origins of the words midriff and rib. They're relationship is not what it may seem, linguistically, at least.

Steven Soderbergh's Bubble is the source of much hand-wringing in Hollywood. But what has entertainment executives agitated isn't the film's story -- about a murderous love triangle at a doll factory -- but the way it's being released. Columnist Jonathan Bing writes for Variety magazine.

President Bush meets with Chinese president Hu Jintao to discuss trade and currency issues. He also attends services at one of China's few state-sanctioned Christian churches, and presses the premier to expand religious, political and social freedoms.

Puzzle master Will Shortz quizzes one of our listeners, and has a challenge for everyone at home. (This week's winner is Portia Cornell from Highland, Ca. She listens to Weekend Edition on member station KVCR in San Bernadino.)

Cleveland Indians relief pitcher Danny Graves rediscovers his roots in Vietnam and hopes to generate interest in his sport while raising funds for a worthy cause.

Chris Elliott, son of the venerable humorist-performer Bob Elliott and a former Late Night with David Letterman gofer-turned-writer, has crafted a mystery-history, tragi-comedy, time-traveling work of literary fiction.

Shortly after Hurricane Katrina struck, the Schultz family of Bayou La Batre, Ala., was in danger of losing their home. But thanks to donations from a church and from strangers, the family is nearly done repairing their home. Their first meal there will be on Thanksgiving Day.

A federal lawsuit against the Massachusetts Department of Education accuses the state of censorship and political interference for using the word "genocide" in its high school curriculum to describe the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of Armenians in Turkey during World War I. Plaintiffs in the suit say that designation is up for debate - but opponents say the evidence of genocide is clear.

NPR's Scott Simon muses on the new poetry collection of deposed Serbian leader Radovan Karadzic. In 1995, the U.N. war crimes tribunal indicted Karadzic, a Bosnian Serb, for his role in a 1995 massacre in Srebrenica and the 1992 siege of Sarajevo. He remains in hiding.

A foreign correspondent in Iraq explores the life and death of his translator. Jacki Lyden talks with radio journalist Michael Goldfarb about his new book Ahmad's War, Ahmad's Peace: Surviving Under Saddam, Dying in the New Iraq.