March has arrived and that means St. Patrick's Day is right around the corner. Although St. Paddy's Day is in its essence a religious holiday, it's also a great excuse to eat, drink and be merry...all of which I will be doing on Sunday, March 17th. My dad's grandparents were Irish, so I'm pretty sure that makes me 99% Irish. Or maybe it's 12%? It doesn't matter. I'm 100% Irish once a year in March.
According to Irish folklore, this is also the time of year when a creepy, bearded fairy known as a Leprechaun makes a magically delicious breakfast cereal, only to selfishly hoard it for himself. If he didn't want to share, he shouldn't have made those tasty marshmallows! Seriously, nobody cares about those oat pieces.
Speaking of Leprechauns, St. Paddy's Day is also a good time to reflect on the confounding film franchise in which a Leprechaun visits various locations including "the hood" and outer space over the course of 6 movies to wreak havoc and, at one point, perform a rap song about being an evil Leprechaun. No, I'm not making this up and yes, somehow funding was secured for the making of 6 separate movies starring a killer Leprechaun who has an affinity for rap music. So if anyone has ever accused you of having a dumb idea, rest assured that someone else had a dumber one. 6 times over.
Here are some other fun facts about St. Patrick's Day that you may not have known:
-The actual color of St. Patrick is blue. Green became associated with St. Patrick's Day during the 19th century. Green, in Irish legends, was worn by fairies and immortals, and also by people to encourage their crops to grow.
-In Chicago, on St. Patrick's Day, the rivers are dyed green!
-The very first St. Patrick's Day parade was not in Ireland. It was in Boston in 1737.
-The "L" in "L3" stands for Leprechaun. Just kidding.
And now on to business. The luck of the Irish is strong with L3 in that Melody Lashmar works for us and continues to crank out informative, thought-provoking articles on a consistent basis. Her latest entry titled "ACH Account Validation" is the first in a series of articles to come discussing methods wherein a business or financial institution can validate the accuracy of a consumer or business's account information. Check it out if you haven't already and give us your thoughts on this important topic.
In February one of our main focuses was improving settlement timeframes for ACH merchants, and we did just! What's more, we were turning around new merchant accounts in as little as 24 hours. And true to our mission statement here at L3, we kept our merchant's accounts healthy by monitoring chargebacks and providing useful analysis to aid in preventing any potential issues down the road. Another successful month behind us and we look forward to doing it all over again in March!
Don't forget to follow us to the end of the rainbow where a pot of gold awaits you on Facebook and Twitter! Well, maybe not gold, but definitely some interesting information.
Have a great month, everyone!
