Erik Maeder

This is my personal Twitter account. I'm an avid music fan, triviot, and pickleball evangelist!

[Erik Maeder @emaeder]

Chihuahuas were raised and sold as food by the Aztecs. #FunFactForTheDay

[Erik Maeder @emaeder]

California spends $106,131 per inmate per year. (The average national spending per student is around $13,000) #FunFactForTheDay

[Erik Maeder @emaeder]

McDonald’s is the world’s biggest toy distributor. The company gives away 1.5 billion toys each year with Happy Meals. #FunFactForTheDay

[Erik Maeder @emaeder]

The Great Chicago Fire of 1871 was not caused by Mrs. O'Leary's cow kicking over a lantern. A newspaper reporter later admitted to having invented the story to make colorful copy. #FunFactForTheDay

[Erik Maeder @emaeder]

Turkey meat is not particularly high in tryptophan. #FunFactForTheDay

[Erik Maeder @emaeder]

The longest-running video game series is, by far: The Oregon Trail. First published in 1971 by the Minnesota Educational Computing Consortium, it beats out the next series (Pac-Man) by almost a decade. #FunFactForTheDay

[Erik Maeder @emaeder]

Elizabeth Taylor was late to her own funeral. She left behind two specific instructions for her service: 1. It would begin 15 minutes after its designated start time, and 2. Someone would announce, “She even wanted to be late to her own funeral.” #FunFactForTheDay

[Erik Maeder @emaeder]

If you combine 250ml of water and 250ml of ethanol, you only get about 480ml of liquid. (The 2 different molecules pack closer together than in a pure solution, resulting in a reduction of volume.) #FunFactForTheDay

[Erik Maeder @emaeder]

General P. G. T. Beauregard won the first battle of the U.S. Civil War at Fort Sumter by defeating his former West Point professor, Major Robert Anderson. #FunFactForTheDay

[Erik Maeder @emaeder]

The Golden Girls was supposed to have a different theme song. Instead of Andrew Gold’s “Thank You for Being a Friend,” the show’s producers wanted to use Bette Midler’s song “Friends," but the cost of buying the license was too expensive and they had to pass. #FunFactForTheDay

[Erik Maeder @emaeder]

“The Star-Spangled Banner,” the US National Anthem has 4 verses, but we only sing the first one. #FunFactForTheDay

[Erik Maeder @emaeder]

During an exhibition game against the New York Yankees in 1931, Jackie Mitchell, a 17-year-old female pitcher for the Chattanooga Lookouts Class AA minor league baseball team, struck out Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig in succession. #FunFactForTheDay

[Erik Maeder @emaeder]

If left unharvested, asparagus can grow up to 11ft, and will fruit red berries that are toxic to humans. #FunFactForTheDay

[Erik Maeder @emaeder]

Washington State has four of the five longest floating bridges in the world. The SR 520 bridge is the world's longest floating bridge, and the Hood Canal Bridge is the longest floating bridge over saltwater. #FunFactForTheDay

[Erik Maeder @emaeder]

The name Sahara comes from the Arabic word for "desert" and Gobi comes from the Chinese word for "desert." Thus, the Sahara Desert and Gobi Deserts are both the "Desert Desert." #FunFactForTheDay

[Erik Maeder @emaeder]

Opossums can birth up to 20 babies just 11 days after mating, making them have the fastest gestation in the animal kingdom. #FunFactForTheDay

[Erik Maeder @emaeder]

The song "Respect," popularized by Aretha Franklin, was originally composed and recorded by Otis Redding. It was about a man getting respect from his girlfriend.#FunFactForTheDay

[Erik Maeder @emaeder]

Queen Elizabeth II had been the Queen of England for more than a quarter of the total time the United States has existed. #FunFactForTheDay

[Erik Maeder @emaeder]

From 1933 to 1975, it was illegal for Americans to own gold. #FunFactForTheDay

[Erik Maeder @emaeder]

The 1997 movie Titanic made roughly $2 billion, five times the actual cost to build the ship in the first place. #FunFactForTheDay