Thank you for the kind words, Jack.
I try to place IAC comments more carefully than I do the Panelists - though I try to place all comments in some coherent form. Sometimes I feel more successful than others.
I have also noticed the use of strategic choices. Hoki is consistently looking for a bid that would strategically be useful at the table, not the contest. Todd, though, is sometimes making a table bid and sometimes making a pure, trying to second-guess the Panel, bid. One thing I always enjoy about Todd's selections is that he is always keeping an eye on what he expects from the Panel and the moderator, even when he chooses something different.
I just wish Todd would provide his early thinking, so we can share in how his perceptions of the problems evolve. I feel the same about your comments, Jack; I often wish I had a better feel for the evolution of your thoughts on these problems.
Not the case with Jock. He always wears his thinking on his sleeve, which I sometimes find frustrating (when I am pulling together the summaries), but always enjoy as they are released to the public. I may not always agree with his thoughts, but I almost always find them thought-provoking.
My two greatest frustrations with IAC's participation in MSC are: (1) That more members do not participate; there are no wrong answers, the scoring is based in part on expert thinking, but seldom is there the near unanimity that was found in this month's Problem D. In fact, for most problems, the top score is based on a plurality of the Panel, not even a majority. So, there is a lot of diversity of opinion. And (2), that many of the IAC solvers who do participate, do not give us any understanding of why they made the choice. In particular, when an IAC solver picks something unique, and provides no reasoning, we only have the thoughts from the Panel, and they may have missed something important that you noticed.
Anyway - for the Yanks (like me), Happy Thanksgiving! For everyone else in IAC, have a wonderful day!
