Huitres- I'll have to put Torre del Lago on my list of "places to go"!

Sorry -- got carried away there.

4th letter is "i."

Hint: While the website still lists a branch of the restaurant in New York (with the same year), a further search reveals that the restaurant (or at least one part of it) in New York has been closed since November 2000. The vacant space used by the former restaurant will be taken over by a store selling exclusive handbags, of which Beverly Sills are apparently very much enamored.

I'm off now, so just continue without me. Or if DT happens to drop by, you can always budge in and give us a clue.

In my hint, I meant that the restaurant in New York has the same *name.*

Oh, I figured it out!
Maxim's
(It's been a while since I was in NY, didn't realize it was closed.)

(Also, never saw the Merry Widow, hence had no idea until I saw the hints.)

Yes!

I just walked past it on Friday and saw that it's being taken by Judith Leiber's store (there was an article on Judith Leiber a few weeks ago in the NYT, so I figured it all out).

Anyway, this is the NYT article on the Leiber store and the Maxim closure:

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpag...55C0A9629C8B63

Apparently the formal restaurant is on the upper floors, and I didn't know about this -- I'm not sure if the formal restaurant is actually closed (the article is unclear about this). But the ground floor is being renovated.

Never saw that Lehar opera either.

Well, it's your clue.

Or I guess DT's -- whoever gets to it first.

And by the way, the guide I had in mind is of course the Michelin guide. I think that Maxim's is no longer listed. At one point it had three stars and was dropped and then added (and, I think, dropped now).

This author/pilot was most famous for this book in which a boy's inter-planetary journey was told. The boy was featured on a currency bill (the currency is not used anymore).

Author: 3 words (7,2,12 - last name has a punctuation mark in it)
Book: 3 words (2,5,6 - "i" is the 4th letter of 2nd word)

Le Petit Prince
Anotine de St.Exupery

Ok -- Saint-Exupery, si vous voulez.

Yes. I was just looking at my copy of The Little Prince (English), and saw that I had kept a 50FF bill in it.

That makes a nice $8 souvenir or something. Actually I've never read it (gasp!). My knowledge is severely lacking in certain departments. :-)

This shouldn't be a difficult clue:

Clue: French composer (8 letters, 5th = "i") who taught a couple of composers just as famous, if not more famous, than he was. One of this works was composed while he was imprisoned during World War 2.

Gasp! You have not read The Little Prince! Well, I didn't read it until I received it as a college graduation present.

Jean Martinon

yk!

Are you sure? Maybe Martinon is a composer too -- but I think he's a conductor.

Try again.

Google helps in this case, by the way. :-)

I'm letting you have another go because you didn't catch my silly typo of Antoine. :-)

OK, maybe you're referring to Olivier Messiaen?

But here is what I found on Jean Martinon:
http://www.cso.org/main.taf?p=7,3,1,4,7

Interesting. I didn't know him as a composer. But anyway, his works are less well-known than Messiaen's, I think. Also Messiaen taught Boulez, Stockhausen and Xenakis.

So it's your clue.

If I remember correctly, Martinon made some celebrated recordings of Debussy (on EMI), not surprisingly.

By the way, DT, if you happen to be reading this, feel free to jump in to give us a clue. It's your clue or yk's.