Hello Sourcers!

What do we have going on this week?

📖History!

✒️Writing!

🎶Records!

🥞Pancakes!

We’re starting off this week at the Broome County Public Library, where they’re kicking off America @ 250 Celebrations with Everything You Wanted to Know About Why America Declared Independence…But Were Afraid to Ask, a talk presented by Binghamton University’s Robert Parkinson, on Wednesday, January 21, 2026, at 6:30 p.m. with light refreshments at 6:15 p.m. Dr. Parkinson was kind enough to do the talkback following one our American Revolution screenings, and is a great speaker on the roots of the Revolution.

On Monday January 19th from noon to 2:30pm, 171 Cedar Arts in Corning convenes local artists and performers to celebrate the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr. with Make Real the Dream, an MLK Day Program for Families. There will be music, dancing, storytelling, and crafts along with free admission to the Rockwell and the Corning Museum of Glass, both of which will be hosting activities of their own as well. 

Finally, this is less of an activity than an opportunity at the moment, but the folks at the Fenimore Art Museum are currently taking submissions for their Write Out Loud event. This event will include live readings of plays, prose, and poems from local writers, and is put on in conjunction with NEXT!, an event that’s a little more focused on creating new local theater. The deadline for submissions is coming up on January 18th, and we’ll have more information about the event itself a little further down the line. If you’re interested in submitting, you can find guidelines here.

I also hear rumblings about a new fringe festival emerging from the depths of Cayuga Lake later this year, but, again, more to come soon.

That’s what I’ve got for you this week, Sourcers. There are more projects in the oven, but they’re not quite baked. You’ll hear about this very soon, though, cross my heart.

Yours,

Bob Proehl

Locally Sourced editor

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Out of My Way- sharing stories of food across the region that I would go out of my way for…and so should you! 

Owego UMC Pancake Breakfast

261 Main St

Owego, NY 13827

2nd Saturday of the month (except August) from 8-10AM

Food builds community. Nowhere is this more evident than at the faith communities, non-profits, and civic organizations that host meals, organize food-focused events, and share their food traditions in cities, towns and villages across the region.

For example, the Hammondsport Fire Department hosts the Smoke on the Water BBQ competition in late August. St. Michael’s Orthodox Church in Binghamton and St. Nicholas Ukrainian Church in Elmira Heights, both have a tradition of selling homemade pierogi at various times of year. The Binghamton Philharmonic and Foodnet in Ithaca both host mac & cheese-themed fundraising events (in February and May respectively). Even the little library in Newfield hosts a bake sale for Valentine’s Day!

So, when I received an invitation from one of the organizers of the monthly pancake breakfast at Owego United Methodist Church (UMC), I jumped at the chance and recruited my husband to join me I generally don’t eat pancakes out because I am a maple syrup snob, but I was pleased to learn that they have REAL maple syrup, a fact they take great pride in sharing. However, calling this a pancake breakfast doesn’t accurately convey the quantity or quality of food options on offer. 

Kitchen crew left to right: Dean Smith, Kevin Bowen, Dave Dewey-Wright, & Greg Houck. Not pictured are Nina Smith, and Kevin & Tonya Cumm. Special thanks to Chris & Kristen Kallin, and John & Jennifer Milligan who help serve and reset tables. It takes a village!

The meal is set up as an all you can eat buffet featuring three different kinds of pancakes: plain, buckwheat, and blueberry (with pumpkin as a fourth option in the fall). In addition to the pancakes, they had homemade sausage gravy and biscuits, as well as scrambled eggs, link sausage, cheesy hash brown casserole and a French toast bake, which is essentially breakfast dessert and another opportunity to deploy the REAL maple syrup. 

As I went through the buffet line, I realized I couldn’t possibly fit everything I wanted to try on one plate and resigned myself to going back up for seconds, but one of the volunteers encouraged me to just grab another plate! There’s no reason to be shy here; everyone was welcoming and warm. When we sat down with our plates piled high, we chatted with other people at our table before we noticed there was a live musician playing guitar at the back of the room, which was a very nice touch. 

At the end of the meal, my husband and I thanked the kitchen crew, and both added our contributions to the free-will donation basket—the meal is free, but they will happily accept donations of any amount! Overall, both the food and the community at the Owego UMC pancake breakfast were first rate, nourishing, and made with love. I don’t know about you, but I think we could all use more of these types of experiences in our lives at this moment. 

Is there a faith community, non-profit, or civic organization in your area that hosts a delicious community meal, food-focused event or unique food tradition that you look forward to every year? Send me a note about it at nthompson@wskg.org.

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Here is a sneak peek into my stream of consciousness.

Back in December, I got an ear infection. My ears are an essential tool in my work, so it drove me nuts that I couldn’t fully hear out of my left ear. When asked to describe what I was hearing, my mind immediately went to Laurie Anderson.

Anderson is a performance artist, writer, singer and performer. I first became aware of her in 1982 with her album Big Science. This disc included the single O, Superman, a 8:21 song that embraced pop minimalism. It is produced with a slight echo on Anderson’s voice… and THAT’S what I was hearing in my ear as a result of my ear infection.

Attending the WSKG Making event at Angry Mom Records in Ithaca, with my echo-y ear, I realized I didn’t own any Laurie Anderson albums. Lucky for me, I found a copy of her second album, Mister Heartbreak. She employs that signature echo sound on her vocals and I felt a kinship listening to it with my bum ear. 

This 1984 album starts with “Sharkey’s Day on Side One and concludes with Sharkey’s Night on Side Two. Unlike her minimalist debut album, Mister Heartbreak is warmer, layered and slicker sounding. Of her thirteen studio albums, this one is her most “pop” record; hooks exist, but they’re embedded in riddles. Dare I say, it’s almost danceable!

One of the quiet strengths of Mister Heartbreak is how Laurie Anderson uses collaboration not to dilute her voice, but to refract it. The guests on the album are carefully chosen, and each one adds warmth, texture, or gravity while leaving Anderson firmly at the center of the work.

Singer/songwriter and music icon Peter Gabriel is one of those collaborators. His influence is not only heard in backing vocals on this disc, but also in the melodic production of the song, “Excellent Birds.” Laurie Anderson is known for her ability to blend narrative elements with electronics, often sounding “cold,” but Gabriel softens her sound.

William S. Burroughs, poster boy of the Beat Generation, is a brief highlight on the closing track, “Sharkey’s Night.” The song was co-written by Anderson and Burroughs, with Burroughs reciting—not singing—lyrics. This wasn’t their first collaboration and wouldn’t be their last.

Ear infection aside, I was thrilled to expand my record collection with Laurie Anderson’s Mister Heartbreak, an interesting combination of the avant-garde with a good beat that you can dance to.