Roger O Green

What the heck is Varo?

online bank

What the heck is Varo? This is not just a rhetorical musing.

I have looked it up at varomoney.com. It is an online banking company. “Varo is a digital bank that offers early direct deposit, high-yield savings, credit score tracking, and a debit card with cashback rewards. Find answers to common questions about opening an account.”

The Google Play app says:

Join 3+ million people getting ahead with their money at Varo!

Varo Bank Account: 4.5/5 stars on Nerdwallet
• No monthly bank account fees or min balance
• Get paid up to 2 days early³
• Instantly send/receive money fast & free with Zelle®⁶ & Varo to Anyone

BTW, I have no idea what the footnotes are about.

The Forbes Advisor likes it, giving it a 4.7 out of five stars.

“With top-notch customer service, a user-friendly mobile app, and nearly no fees, Varo Bank is an excellent choice for anyone looking to simplify their finances. Varo offers competitive interest rates on savings accounts, up to 6% cash back on select purchases, and the ability to borrow up to $250 with Varo Advance. Even though it’s an online bank, there are plenty of ways to access your money by visiting any of the over 40,000+ ATMs in the Allpoint network.”

I got it.

My problem

At the end of December, I got a Visa credit card from Varo in the mail. It was sent to our home but addressed to someone we never heard of, and we’ve been here for over two decades.

So I called the phone number on the card. But that line was only appropriate for “members.” After some trial and error, I found an email address to send information to. It’s been 12 days, yet I have not received a response.

One can legitimately complain about the traditional banking system. Still, they would have responded immediately if I told their offices I had a credit card that did not belong to me. Since I have no relationship with Varo, how did they send it to my address? And I assume the actual customer must have been frustrated waiting for the card.

A 2020 article reads, “Varo notes it’s the first U.S. consumer fintech to be granted a banking charter… ‘This is a thrilling milestone for Varo, as the bank charter has been a core part of Varo’s disruptive vision from the very beginning,’ said Varo Bank founder and CEO Colin Walsh.”

Varo’s credo appears to be “Believe.” I believe I won’t be recommending them to anyone as they disrupted my day.

Sunday Stealing: My Favorite…

King Derwin of Didd summons his royal magicians

This week’s Sunday Stealing is My Favorite…whatever.

1. Favorite food

I always say spinach lasagna because I like lasagna, and I like spinach. I actually like making lasagna once a year, usually three or four of them, because it does not that much more effort. (It’s messy, or I’d do it more often.) But it has to be cold outside, so turning on the oven is worth my while.

But in truth, my fave is probably chicken. Baked, fried, Cajun, whatever.

2. Favorite color

There’s this existential war between green, which is, after all, my last name, and blue. It’s somewhere in that “cool” color range.

3. Favorite Animal

In that aren’t they interesting category, sloths. There was a piece about them on 60 Minutes recently. Their slow motions allow them to survive. That sounds like good advice for many humans.

Most of my pets have been cats, though.

4. Favorite thing to do on a cold day

If not making lasagna, then reading a book while listening to music.

5. Favorite vacation spot

The two places are both in upstate New York: Lake Placid and Niagara Falls.

6. Favorite TV show

CBS Sunday Morning. It’s a magazine of the air I’ve watched regularly since 1979. I’m really happy that the video recorder and then the DVR player exist because they’re on while I’m at church.

7. Favorite Mythical creature

Lenny, named for Leonard Bernstein: see above

Theodor Geisel

8. Favorite fairy tale

Bartholomew and the Oobleck by Dr. Seuss. It’s a kid speaking truth to power. And Oobleck is green.

9. Favorite thing to draw

Somewhere in this blog, though I can’t find it immediately, I wrote that I can’t draw. I almost failed 4th grade art. You do NOT want me to be the person who draws for your Pictionary team. And when I wrote about this, a few people said anyone can draw. This may be true, but I have been shamed for decades out of even wanting to try.

10. Favorite scent

Lilacs. Growing up in Binghamton, NY, we had a tree right next to our house.

11. Favorite mode of transportation

The train, such as Amtrak. I don’t like flying, though I did it twice in 2023 for reasons of time.

12. Favorite vegetable

Corn on the cob

13. Favorite candy

York Peppermint Patty or a Mounds bar, which I find in my Christmas stocking every year. Santa remembered!

14. Favorite sport

To play, when I was able to, racquetball, which I loved not just because I didn’t suck at it, but for the relationships. I used to play with, among others, two of my best friends, Norm and Mike, both of whom died too early. I also liked volleyball.

To watch: the National Football League, but not in real time. I record it, avoid the email/phone, and watch a 60-minute game in about an hour and a quarter instead of three hours.

15. Favorite weather

Temperate. My tolerance for extreme weather – hot and muggy or frosty – has definitely declined. Albany is getting snow right now, but it hasn’t been that frequent, so I don’t mind.

#1 hits of 1904

celebrating the anniversary of the Louisiana Purchase

The #1 hits of 1904 include a few songs you know. You’re older than you look.

Sweet Adeline (You’re the Flower of My Heart) – Haydn Quartet (Victor), ten weeks at #1. The Crew-Cuts covered this in 1959. I have heard Sweet Adeline groups (female barbershop quartets) sing this song. I checked the Social Security database. Adeline was Top 1000 from 1900 to 1952. It fell off the list until 1999. In 2022, it was #92. Adaline (#242) and Adelina (#401) also ranked.

Meet Me In St. Louis, Louis– Billy Murray (Edison), nine weeks at #1. The Louisiana Purchase Exposition in that year was described as “the most lavish fair of the era.” Louis was a Top 30 name between 1900 and 1927, in the Top 100 through 1959, and is still #246 in 2022; Luis is currently #125.

Bedelia – Haydn Quartet. I couldn’t find a particularly clean copy. (Victor), Seven weeks at #1. I checked the Social Security database. Bedelia has never been in the top 1000 names since 1900.

Navajo – Billy Murray (Columbia), five weeks at #1. A piece of music of its time.

Silver Threads Among The Gold – Richard Jose (Victor), four weeks at #1

Blue Bell – Byron Harlan and Frank Stanley (Edison), four weeks at #1

You’re The Flower Of My Heart, Sweet Adeline – Columbia Male Quartet (Columbia), three weeks at #1

Bedelia – Billy Murray (Edison), three weeks at #1

Alexander– Billy Murray (Edison), three weeks at #1. A “comedy record” because Murray is presumably singing from the female POV? Alexander has been a Top 250 name since 1900, #4 in 2009, and #17 in 2022.

Blue Bell – Haydn Quartet (Victor), three weeks at #1

A couple more

All Aboard for Dreamland– Byron Harlan (Edison), two weeks at #1. This is about the Coney Island amusement park. I had a difficult time finding a decent recording.

Toyland – Corrine Morgan and Haydn Quartet (Victor), two weeks at #1

Adeline, Louis, Bedelia, and Navajo also reached the top 3 by other artists.

One song that my high school Glee club performed was a version of The Woodchuck Song. It was sung by Bob Roberts (Edison) and went to #3.

My favorite 1904 title is Under the Anhauser Bush, a comedy record by Arthur Collins and Bryan Harlan (Edison), which reached #2. The tune was used in the movie Meet Me in St. Louis (1944), starring Judy Garland, as was Louis, sung by Judy.

Boxing Day 2023

my ever-present past

Boxing Day 2023 was intriguing.

The doorbell rang around 7:30 a.m. It was a guy from the City of Albany’s Department of General Services. He and his colleagues would trim the branches from the trees in the neighborhood. A branch of our neighbor’s tree was leaning heavily on the power lines in front of our house.

Were any of the cars on your side of the street ours? No, our car was across the street. Even though I’m car blind – I don’t recognize vehicles well – I could identify our next-door neighbor’s from an item he placed in front of the car so people were less likely to run into it while parking.

They spent over an hour trimming one tree. It had a lot of problematic branches, and they had to cut them into smaller parts. Then they put those branches in in the mulcher.

I suspect they picked that week to do our street because there is an elementary school on the block, and many teachers park on the street. Too many people grumble about government employees, but I was quite pleased with these.

Book review intro

I stopped at the bank to get cash. I had to wait because a bank employee showed a young woman how to use the ATM.

Then, I took the bus to the Albany Public Library’s Washington Avenue branch to meet the author, Michael Sinclair. He has written a series of 1920s mysteries centered in Albany or Schenectady, NY.

Interestingly, his presentation was much more about Albany’s history, complete with many photos, and less about the books.

My past converges

After the talk, I talked to a reference librarian who’s often at the desk when I’m there on Tuesday afternoons. Michael Sinclair thanked her for some technical assistance, mentioned that he had graduated from UAlbany’s library school in 2003 and that the APL librarian had attended a decade earlier.

I asked her, “When did you graduate?” “1992.” I graduated in 1992. She asked who I knew from there then. I mentioned two future NY SBDC colleagues and my ex-wife. “She was married to this guy who was in the program.” I shook my head and said, “That was ME!”

Okay, so that was weird. Then she said, “And you used to go out with” this woman I dated off-and-on from 1978 to 1983. How did she know THAT? She used to work for said girlfriend at her office at UAlbany, and I would go there occasionally. So the librarian and I used to talk 40 years ago! She said I had a big ‘fro at the time; I didn’t think so, but it was an occasionally scruffy mess.

Altercation

As I’m standing at the reference desk, we hear one person yelling at another. And it got weird. I won’t talk much about it here because no great harm occurred, though it was unsettling to the library staff and me. Oh, and I was wearing a Santa hat at the time. The police arrived after one of the two had departed.

I went home, and then my wife and I went to the movies, which I wrote about separately.

How was YOUR Boxing Day 2023? Mine didn’t involve boxing, but it came close.

The random 2023 post

Nerdfighters

This is the random 2023 post. I randomly pick the blog post date for each month, and then, within that post, randomly select a sentence. I’m sure I purloined the idea from near twin Gordon.

A serious blogger like Kelly would pour through his output and highlight his favorite work from last year. That is a great idea, but that would involve actual work.

January: “Tell everyone about how #nylibraries have been important to your communities on social media!” Oops – I got caught advocating for libraries again!

February: “I explained this phenomenon here.” The “here” is a 2021 blog post about why sometimes people call me George; it has something to do with common consonants. This was a Sunday Stealing post.

March: “He wrote in a New York Times Magazine piece about catching a girl who was screaming.” The “he” was writer Armin Brott talking about how men’s involvement in parenting is often discouraged.

April: “If you know the history of the Census, you may realize that the current decennial census asks very few questions.” I was in full data geek mode.

May: “’Am I selfless, ever trusting in my supposed maternal instinct, and willing to fully sacrifice without complaining?'” Katy Huie Harrison, Ph.D. writes about the idealized mother. Her answer was, “Hell no!” But she adds, “And I think I’m a great mom.” This was my Mother’s Day post.

June: “Visit another church congregation for a shared picnic.” My plans for a very busy June. It was a lovely picnic, BTW. A Sunday Stealing.

Side 2

July: “My daughter started watching RuPaul’s Drag Race in the Best Reality Competition area, and I saw a few episodes.” I used to watch so much more TV in the 20th Century.

August: “It was written by Adrian Tomine, who also adapted the screenplay.” My review of the movie Shortcomings, which my wife liked far more than I did.

September: “I noted here that my sister Marcia and I used to play The Man from U.N.C.L.E. together.” A linkage post mentioned the passing of actor David McCallum.

October: “Answers from some Nerdfighters: ‘The Anthropocene Reviewed attempts to capture what it means to be human.'” My attempt to review the John Green book.

November: “I began to doubt my cognitive abilities.” The wallet is REALLY gone this time. What a PITA.

December: “I won’t do this for 1954 because I was born in 1953.” Celebrating the folks who are roughly nine months younger than I.

And the photo was randomly chosen from the photos used on this blog.