The winner is...

Susan Hoffman! The judging process consisted of looking at the list of clues for each word and identifying the best one or two clues for word. Susan had one clue:

ASP: "A striking end to a classic love affair"

that I thought rocked. I kind of liked the ones that pulled ASP from ASPIRE (Tom Ratcliffe) and ASPHALT (the now-eminent Co Crocker), but those probably wouldn't pass muster for a standard daily crossword.

Susan's other two entries were my second-favorite clues for those words:

ONES: "Half of the average digital database"
OREO: "Takes a lickin' and keeps on splittin'"

Great job, Susan! E-mail me with your address, and I'll send your book. Maybe you can solve the book of puzzles in your Hoffman spa.

Other clues that I especially enjoyed were the Toms' (McCormick and Ratcliffe) TOMEI: "Costanza's crush" (T.R.) and "Costanza's obsession" (T.McC.); Dave P.'s OREO: "Little dipper in a milky way," ONES: "Eleven couples," and ABET: "Second a base man"; JBo's OLEO: "Bar with no alcohol" and NTH: "Degree not earned at school"; Tom McCormick's TARS: "Feathers forerunner?"; Bob Stigger's ONES: "Beauty pageant long-shots" (despite the antifeminist overtones); Tom Ratcliffe's OLEO: "You can believe it's not butter"; Ron's NTH: "Series finale, say"; and Gary's EMIR: "The Meop of the Ancient Mariner?" (because "meop" sounds funny).

Thanks for playing, everyone!