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Sam Darrigrand

@sdarrigrand

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Room 31 is my favorite at the Lakeside Inn.

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A beautiful final morning at the Lakeside Inn. The colors were intense and extreme. And the folks friendly.

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🚎 “BEHIND THE WHEEL: NEW YORK, INTRODUCTION 🚎

Hey folks, I have a new writing project: “Behind the Wheel: New York.”

I have a literary agent now, so I probably won’t be posting chapters as I write them, as I did with “BRONX NIGHTS” 🌃🍎.

But I figured the first draft of the intro was worth throwing out into the ether.

☮️

////

🚎 “BEHIND THE WHEEL: NEW YORK” 🚎

INTRODUCTION

In the Brad Pitt vehicle, F1: The Movie, his character tosses out a checklist of his driving ventures during the decade following his near-fatal Spanish Grand Prix crash. It’s impressive: Dakar desert racing, Le Mans endurance racing, NASCAR, etc.

There’s a potential throwaway line in Sonny’s list: taxi driver in New York City.

The audience laughs because it’s supposed to.

But anyone who drives for a living in the Big Apple knows better. Being behind the wheel in New York is no less exhilarating, no less dangerous, than any driving career that includes champagne showers.

Captaining a yellow cab or an articulated bus, or even a garbage truck or a snowplow, isn’t sexy or flamboyant. These drivers aren’t paraded about by Fortune 500 sponsors or glammed over by media circuses. Hell, there’s no team of mechanics, engineers and trainers—it’s just a human being in a vehicle trying to make a buck and survive in the craziest imaginable urban circulatory system.

I moved to New York City in March 2023, desperate to find a cure from Long COVID, an illness which blessed me with a worldclass case of Chronic Insomnia. I went five years going totally sleepless three to six nights per week. Try doing six days without sleep just one time, and I’ll meet you for stale PBJs and plastic cranberry juice containers at the nearest psych ward.

Add Autism and PTSD to the equation, plus two congenital blood-clotting disorders, and you have the recipe for a ruined life.

{But you gotta hear the last 2 lines:}

Because I owe the city this book.

Because the streets of New York healed me.

🚌

Arik Bjorn
February 26, 2026

#behindthewheel #newyork #books #bus #NYC newyorkcity

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Big thanks to @ewhite0416 for capturing all the fun in photos from the "MARDI GRAS MIXOLOGY" class!🍹🍸🥃
@historianlounge

#mixology #mixologist #cocktail #mardigras

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Had a lovely few chilly windy days at the Lakeside Inn for New Years.

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A brilliant weekend at the Lakeside Inn with friends, old and new, and amazing fall colors. There also was a reception and book signing for Thomas Gavin’s new photographic essay about the iconic inn and its people. Room 22 is on the cover—it’s one of my favorite rooms.

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Gordon Beach Inn.

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We’ve been keeping our ear to the ground on all of the changes in federal policy that might have an impact on Brandon’s care, but in the meantime, we had an amazing visit recently with two of the best, Adam and Sam! Forever thankful for these guys who have been our friends for close to 15 years. ❤️ Z&H foreva.

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Thank you @zachzitske @sdarrigrand @lakesideinnart for a great raku morning

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Wow, what a night of love and fun! We loved celebrating the wedding of our dear friends Joseph and Errol this weekend!

The traffic delays didn’t keep us from imbibing, dining, singing, dancing and looking fine doing it!

Jo loved designing the custom labels for their savory favors. Every guest went home with a jar of @keepitsavorysaltco_ Rosemary Sage salt.

Thank you, @josemole and @eahjr85 for sharing your love and all-around-savory hearts with us!

#EJDayOne
#savorlove #KeepLoveSavory
#LoveWins #LoveIsLove
#wedding #weddingfavors

#keepitsavory
#custom #salt #saltbae

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Great day to swim around Mackinac Island! Go team “turtles all the way down!”

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Always a nice cozy time at the Lakeside Inn, even with high winds!

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