Haha - fair enough, I could remove the chainring. The bulk of my problem is clearly the threading on the crank-arm. So, perhaps I will try the Helicoil, but I sure would like to just re-thread what's there. It's essentially as if the 'teeth' of the threading are all gone. So, the diameter of the hole is as big as the deepest grooves on the threading.

Bah - why oh why! I should never have purchased those p.o.s. pedals, I had a bad feeling about it from the get-go.

Thanks for the advice so far gang. Any other tips are more than welcome.