11-12 August 23

 On 12 August 1990, explorer Sue Hendrickson uncovered what is known as the largest, nearly-complete skeleton of a Tyrannosaurus Rex, near Faith, South Dakota. The bones were assembled into the exhibit named "Sue," at the Field Museum in Chicago. My tie thus celebrates the 33rd anniversary of the discovery of "Sue"! 🦖 

12 August 22

 On 12 August 1990, explorer Sue Hendrickson uncovered what is known as the largest, nearly-complete skeleton of a Tyrannosaurus Rex, near Faith, South Dakota. The bones were assembled into the exhibit named "Sue," at the Field Museum in Chicago. My tie thus celebrates the 32nd anniversary of the discovery of "Sue"! 🦖 

7 January 21

 Today's tie was selected by Rae Beatty to honor her birthday! She is married to my nephew Matt Lang, and they live in Asheville, NC. Rae teaches English classes at community colleges near Asheville. She has been playing a video game where she collects fossils, so she asked me to wear my dinosaur skeleton tie!

12 August 20

On 12 August 1990, explorer Sue Hendrickson uncovered what is known as the largest, nearly-complete skeleton of a Tyrannosaurus Rex, near Faith, South Dakota. The bones were assembled into the exhibit named "Sue," at the Field Museum in Chicago. My tie thus celebrates the 30th anniversary of the discovery of "Sue"! 🦖

16 January 19

Thirty-three years ago today, in the year when I myself would turn 33, I witnessed the birth of Benjamin Robert Kleppinger. He has turned out pretty well, graduating with a perfect record from Kleppinger Home School and magna cum laude from Eastern Kentucky University. His journalism major prepared him perfectly for his current position as editor of the Advocate-Messenger daily newspaper in Danville, KY. As his grandmother Ethel Kleppinger would say, we are bursting our buttons when we think about Ben. He likes my Tyrannosaurus Rex tie and chooses it often for his birthday celebration day.


A photo from 2008

12 August 18

On 12 August 1990, explorer Sue Hendrickson uncovered what is known as the largest, nearly-complete skeleton of a Tyrannosaurus Rex, near Faith, South Dakota. The bones were assembled into the exhibit named "Sue," at the Field Museum in Chicago. My tie thus celebrates the 28th anniversary of the discovery of "Sue"! 🦖

11 September 17

I could try to invent a reason for wearing this dinosaur skeleton tie today, but the truth is that I simply noticed it on my tie racks and checked that I had not worn it recently!

10 October 16

I could say that I'm wearing this great dinosaur tie today just because I've gone almost a whole year without showing it. Or I could say that I'm making up for missing the chance to wear it back in August to celebrate the 26th anniversary of the discovery of the most complete known skeleton of Tyrannosaurus Rex. The date was 12 August 1990 and the place was the Hell Creek Formation near Faith, South Dakota. Sue Hendrickson, an amateur paleontologist, discovered the skeleton, and the displayed specimen at the Field Museum in Chicago is named Sue in her honor. If you don't accept either of those reasons for my tie, you will be in good shape to celebrate International Skeptics' Day, coming up on Thursday this week (I believe).

15 October 15

One day early, I'm helping Ben and Amanda celebrate their fifth wedding anniversary! They both like my Tyrannosaurus Rex tie -- Amanda loves animals of all sorts and sizes, and Ben has asked for this tie for several other special occasions. Five years ago we had an excellent outdoor celebration at the Indian Fort Mountain amphitheater, complete with hundreds of flowering plants and grasses grown at our home.

16 January 14

Benjamin Robert Kleppinger was born on this day (at 12:27 a.m.) in 1986. He asked me to wear my Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton tie. And today I'm taking care of Jonathan's daughter Mallie, so it's fun to think of myself as a "dinosaur" in the life of a six-month-old little girl!

19 April 12

Happy Birthday to Michael Kneff, our great family friend and camp director for Mission Discovery. He chose my dinosaur skeleton tie for his special day! We will be with Michael this June, working in the kitchen at Fort Blackmore (VA) Camp while he leads teams of youth workers on home construction projects.

5 June 11

Kirsten Rae (Huizenga) Caminiti was born 41 years ago today! She is my niece who lives in the Philadelphia area, near her brother David and my sister Gloria. When I asked Kirsten to choose my tie for today, she looked over the options and selected Tyrannosaurus Rex! This is also one of my son Ben's all time favorites.

16 January 11

Twenty-five years ago, at 12:27 a.m. on this date, Benjamin Robert Kleppinger was born! We are celebrating his birthday with a very special surprise: tickets to "Monty Python's Spamalot!" at the Lexington Opera House. I know that Ben counts my dinosaur tie as one of his top favorites, so I'm wearing it in his honor today.

20 June 10

Father's Day! This tie is one of Ben's favorites in my collection. (And I wore one of Jonathan's favorites in May for his college graduation.)

16 March 10

I haven't had an occasion in quite a while to wear my T-Rex tie, so today's the day.

10 May 09

Today is Mother's Day, and so I invited Beth to select my tie, and she chose Snoopy Joe Preppy. It's also appropriate for remembering yesterday's commencement exercises at Eastern Kentucky University, where we witnessed the graduations of both Benjamin R. Kleppinger (summa cum laude and Honors graduate) and Amanda Eveleen Wheeler. I wore my "dinosaur skeleton" tie to those ceremonies because that's Ben's favorite.

15 January 09

Today I am honoring my son Ben's 23rd birthday which occurs tomorrow (a Friday, when I usually get away without a tie). When I asked him which of my ties would be most appropriate, he immediately suggested my dinosaur tie--which is also the one he asks to borrow! It does not make me feel old.

20 August 08

Today was simply the right time to wear my Tyrannosaurus Rex tie. It is also vaguely appropriate for my wife's parents' 59th anniversary, because that's a very long time, but I certainly do not consider them to be "dinosaurs"! (We just spent last weekend with them, walking the trails around Cumberland Falls State Resort Park.)