10. Scrapbook. I retired from teaching at the end of last school year. To mark the occasion, my wife and BFF (see #1 below) put together a scrapbook for memories and kind words from students and colleagues. Everyone should be so lucky as to have the kind of career I had, and while I definitely have mixed feelings about putting it in the rear view mirror, I will always treasure the coolest keepsake a fella could ever receive.

9. Eels - The Cautionary Tales of Mark Oliver Everett. I didn't listen to much music this summer. But what I did listen to largely came from this stellar set from one of the best songwriters of the 21st century. I kicked off the summer by attending a concert by Eels in Royal Oak, and that was pretty darned cool, too.

8. Little Tommy Lost - Cole Closser. Summer means graphic novels for this boy, and while I had a particularly good season in that respect in terms of library finds, this wholly unique item stands head-and-shoulders above the rest. Made to appear as though it was a collection of yellowed daily and Sunday comic strips clipped from old newspapers, when in fact it is the work of a contemporary writer-artist, this overcame the obvious artifice attendant in its creation to present a story with real weight, and dare I say it, deep feeling. This was cool because I never saw it coming.

(Runners-up: Beautiful Darkness - Fabien Vehlmann; This One Summer - Jillian and Mariko Tamaki)

7. Careless People: Murder, Mayhem, and The Invention of The Great Gatsby - Sarah Churchwell. This page-turner strains to make the connection between real world and fictional events at times, even as it misreads or misses altogether a couple of key moments or central issues in its source material. All that notwithstanding, I was quite taken by its structural analysis of a text which, if nothing else, is a masterpiece of same. And when you think about it, when was the last time anyone even tried to say something new about Scott Fitzgerald and his most famous fictional creation? This was cool because it made me think in new ways about a book I know as well as any I've ever read, which is no small feat.

(Runner-up: Supreme City: How Jazz Age Manhattan Gave Birth to Modern America - Donald L. Miller)

6. Boyhood. That this film by Richard Linklater was overrated is inarguable, as could be said of any film garnering 99% on the Rotten Tomatoes critics scale. Say what you will about it, though, the reason so many critics fell for it as hard as they did undoubtedly stemmed from the completely unique circumstances under which it was created. And I think there are a lot of great life lessons, large and small, to be found in this twelve-year masterpiece. Just the fact that I felt the urge to see it again with Hanley boys in tow should speak volumes about how cool it was in that respect: I've never seen a movie that said things so necessary I felt the need to go see it with my sons a second time.

5. Knotty Pine, ISP. About the time we started to pack up from our annual camping trip to Interlochen State Park last summer, I got the bright idea of reserving this aptly named camper cabin at the park, rather than sleeping in our customary tent this year. I gotta say, it was just about the smartest move I ever made on at least three counts: 1) no need to cower in a tent and wait for it to take water in the inevitable rainstorm; 2) sleeping on a bed beats waking up with a sore back from a cot every time; 3) having an actual living room of sorts made playing board games much more fun after dark. This was cool because we did it more or less on a lark, and it surpassed our wildest expectations.

4. Starbuds with CPH. Every couple days or so my youngest, Charlie, and I headed downtown to our local Starbucks. I would usually treat him to a white mocha while I had a tall dark roast. Before we left the place we would spend a few minutes taking in the antics of the middle-aged guys who hang out at the 21st century's version of a malt shop, and eventually, as is typical for Charlie, he came up with an idea (Charlie is lousy with ideas), this time for a sitcom. Suffice it to say that we found a role for practically everyone of the regulars, and Charlie even mastered the art of saying "Starbuds is filmed before a live studio audience" in a fairly convincing fashion. This was cool because one of those ideas of Charlie's will turn out to be a money-maker someday, and when it does, I want to be able to tell him I was there to encourage him every step of the way.

3. The Back of Jack 2014. During our camping trip at Interlochen in 2009, I took a photo from behind of my middle boy, Jack, sitting pensively on a dock and titled it The Back of Jack. Little did I know that this would become the start of a tradition. This year's shot is the first in which he is standing, and I gotta say I feel a little bit like Richard Linklater watching Mason grow up in Boyhood. This was cool because I love Jack, pure and simple.

2. "There's something about a man in uniform." Toward the end of summer Walter, my eldest, started working as a service clerk (i.e. bag boy, stocker, cart-getter, all-around stuff-doer) at Busch's, our grocery store since shortly after he was born. This was cool, yes, because he learns responsibility and earns money, but mostly because to me at least, he just looks so damn sharp in his yellow shirt with store logo under his burgundy apron with same. I fully realize that feeling this way is proof positive that I have lost all perspective, both on my son and what constitutes anything remotely cool, but you know what? I really don't care!

1. JBH BFF. Speaking of losing perspective, I have absolutely none when it comes to my wife of nearly (holy cow!) two decades, Julie Boyer Hanley. She is still a hottie with a body, still the kindest, most sensitive, strongest person I know, and I am still The Luckiest Man in the USA in no small part because I found her. These transitions we are in the midst of presently (hubby retiring a full ten years before you, oldest son a senior in high school) could throw anyone for a loop, but in the evening, she is always there to take my hand and walk with me around the block to savor our day. I don't think I need to explain any further why that is cool.