Hint #1: 9 clues have a parenthetical number after it... what do the numbers mean?
Hint #2: Perhaps a more helpful title would be "Phil in(dex) the Blank"
Hint #3: Consider the nth letter of the answer where n = number in parenthesis... For example, Phil ___ (author of this puzzle) (3) would yield the third letter of CHOW = the letter "O"
Hint #4: The famous Phil is not a person... He's also not that great at predicting things and has an overall success rate of about 40%
Hint #5: The famous Phil is associated with a US holiday celebrated on February 2... He hails from a borough in Pennsylvania with a rather difficult name to spell