What's most interesting is that Jak and the Beanstalk and Julie is Three fit into the same places in our lists, despite those other places being different.
If you're talking about the Novellas, I didn't really like any of them aside from "With Unclean Hands" (which I'd call above-average-but-not-great), but I got a few chuckles out of Vajra's story while Rusch and the other Angela Cort story actively pissed me off. I didn't like Santos' story all that much, but I want to encourage more translations in Analog, and as I said, I actively disliked the other two options. On a stronger year, Santos and Vajra would not have made my ballot.
In the short stories, I like Oltion in general, but I have a hard time voting for him for anything, because I read his 8 stories for the year in 10 minutes each, chuckle a bit, and then forget which was which. And the problem is, I think if I can't really differentiate your stories, I'm not going to vote for you, even if I enjoyed them.
I did enjoy Bullfrog Radio Astronomy for the first 2/3, (especially the FCC angle) but the climax felt way over-the-top and sort of ruined the story for me. It was a somewhat comedic story, but I felt the ending was somehow taking itself too seriously and a bit nonsensical.
Analog Novelettes were the one category I didn't get to finish reading before it was time to vote, and I didn't get to either of the stories you mentioned. But I absolutely loved Boneless one, and I almost voted for Kawataro as well, but I read Therapeutic Mathematics at the last minute and it had to go on the ballot.
Honestly, I'm surprised I voted for Lovett, I tend to find him a bit overrated, but I really liked how Jak and the Beanstalk played out, especially the ending.
