Nate will make his academic-conference debut this spring at the 2007 Great Lakes Chapter Annual Conference of the College Music Society, the music-theory professional organization. Working title is “Deck of Trick Chords: Tonal Analysis and Chromatic Substitutions in the Songs Of Elliott Smith,” and if you ask politely he may be signing autographs after the presentation. At moments like this, Pippa canonically rushes up to me, saying “Deflate! Deflate!” but I’m awfully proud of my kids anyway.