Hot Stuff:A food lover's guide to the Triangle and beyond.

Specialty of the House:I recently had a cucumber and cilantro soup at Lantern that was perfect during this hot weather. I've thought about just winging it without a recipe, but I'm sure my results won't be as good. Any chance they'd share the recipe? -- R.D., Raleigh.

The Beijing Olympics on NBC continued to bring in more than 20 million viewers on each night of competition, although after swimmer Michael Phelps ended his historic gold medal run, a slight sag in both ratings and enthusiasm ensued.

1. Summer Olympics Closing Ceremonies, NBC, 27.8.

'Hamlet 2" belongs to the school of free-for-all satiric farce whose creators ball up wads of ideas, apply chewing gum and hurl them against the wall to see what sticks. If the style smacks of desperation, enough of the jokes cling to make "Hamlet 2," directed by Andrew Fleming, intermittently funny.

The latest releases.

Told You So:Carolyn Hax is away. Readers weigh in with their thoughts.

"Gods of Autumn," the world premiere that closes Hot Summer Nights at the Kennedy's season, features two Broadway actors who perform superbly in intriguing roles. But the play suffers from cliches, structural artifice and poor character development.

Raleigh's Broadway Series South and N.C. Theatre has scored a coup, getting Broadway's Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons musical "Jersey Boys" to come to Raleigh in 2009 and to stay...just a little bit longer.