Dave

@Jane Wheelaghan having used some of their products I confidently entered OXO. When the cross started looking like EXCLAVE, which I had never heard of, I also decided that maybe ONO was a brand, too. Then I saw 18D could only be ONO. ONO says I, I have two ONOs in the puzzle. That's when I learned that EXCLAVE was a thing.

@Bill I had PETAL until I couldn't make the crosses work, then changed it to SEPAL. Now a truly great Schroedinger puzzle trick would have been if both answers fit! And even more impressive, if TEPAL would also fit. But maybe that would just be gilding the lily.

@Lee I do crack almonds with my favorite nutcracker: a pair of channellock pliers. But I wouldn't touch unshelled cashews (if I could find them) with any nutcracker of mine. Their double shell contains an acidified version of urushiol, the active ingredient that causes poison ivy rash. Best to leave the cracking to those who know what they are doing.

@Aaron Yeah I got that. Interesting that it can be read two very different ways.

@Cherry But Spanish can also misdirect. I had SAL instead of French SEL in 22A until I got enough letters in SPICERUBS to figure out that A didn't belong.

@Jane Wheelaghan I too have never heard it used. But what a fun ramble it led me on. I found that: asperse can also mean to sprinkle with holy water. An instrument used liturgically to do so is called an aspergillum. One such instrument looks like a tiny mace with a hollow head with holes in it. Both asperse and aspersion are descendants of the Latin verb aspergere, meaning "to sprinkle." (I suppose casting aspersions is sprinkling rumors.) Aspergillus is a genus consisting of several hundred mold species. It was named because it looks like an aspergillum when viewed under a microscope.

@Jane Wheelaghan I very frequently do not know names of popular culture or sports figures, but I do know they are names. I filled in MIKE after getting M and K on crosses and knowing it to be a name. But when 10D wasn't working, I guessed someone named Brzezinski might be a MIKA instead. Same with NEAL and NEWELL - I know neither of these people, but happened to know someone named Neal Newell in my younger days, so I put these in as a (lucky) guess.

@John if you want to be excruciatingly accurate, the planets in the solar system and the Sun revolve around the center of mass of the system, called the barycenter - but where's the fun in that? Unless you want to clue barycenter, which would be a wicked crossword entry.

@Down_Home I'm more likely say that in response to ess-SHOO than ess-CHEW :-)

@Lynn Early forms of digital transmission could send one bit at a time, so speed was measured in bits per second. Yes you can multiply by 8 but bps allowed engineers to talk about what mattered, which was how fast the transmitter could change from one state (symbol) to another. Later transmission schemes could transmit 4, 8, or more bits per transmitted symbol. (BTW it didn't have to be a power of 2.) Bits per second remained the most convenient common way to describe transmission speed.

@Susan me too!

@Alana physicist was absent, left a note: "Gone fission"

@Nancy maybe it would be easier if the clues were written in a serif font - say, Times Roman?

@Asher B. are all Dad jokes puns? or vice versa? I don't know. I agree with responses that context and intent are important in humor, and not to take offense where none was intended. I do think it's possible to become too PC police-y, but some responses talked about jokes that invoke stereotypes of other groups - blondes, Jews, Poles, etc. that often cross the line. So back to puns - I am delighted by them, and - bonus - they don't require a victim. Also spoonerisms - The Rev. Spooner is long since passed and can't take offense. Malapropisms - the fictitious Mrs. Malaprop won't complain. Mondegreens? I doubt not that "Lady Mondegreen" would be happy to have them named after her, if she existed. So far from being the "lowest form of humor" I think they are the best.