Addison Del Mastro
@ad-mastro.bsky.social
Writing with a focus on urbanism, culture, and popular history. I write The Deleted Scenes, a daily, mostly-urbanism newsletter on Substack. [email protected].
One of the questions here is what exactly does “gratitude” entail? I think I’ve always thought it means feeling bad, a kind of emotional tax you pay for joy. I suppose that’s wrong! thedeletedscenes.substack.com/p/feasting-e...
December 1, 2025 at 2:16 PM
One of the questions here is what exactly does “gratitude” entail? I think I’ve always thought it means feeling bad, a kind of emotional tax you pay for joy. I suppose that’s wrong! thedeletedscenes.substack.com/p/feasting-e...
We have the kiddie chopsticks and the Maxwell's Silver Hammer
November 29, 2025 at 7:51 PM
We have the kiddie chopsticks and the Maxwell's Silver Hammer
This was a baby I think. I also saw a raccoon sleeping in a water draining pipe once. I don't think I've seen a live raccoon since we moved to Herndon. I guess because I'm not near forest anymore
November 25, 2025 at 1:36 PM
This was a baby I think. I also saw a raccoon sleeping in a water draining pipe once. I don't think I've seen a live raccoon since we moved to Herndon. I guess because I'm not near forest anymore
Don't know who this author is, but man that subhead, it's so weird to me how certain things become political when they don't seem that way at all (like urbanism but even there the political aspect is much more obvious than this!)
November 25, 2025 at 2:47 AM
Don't know who this author is, but man that subhead, it's so weird to me how certain things become political when they don't seem that way at all (like urbanism but even there the political aspect is much more obvious than this!)
A couple of months ago I wrote about my "retro room" that I set up. I finally got a real Super Nintendo console with a modified cartridge slot, so it can play Japanese Super Famicom games as well. This stuff was great. thedeletedscenes.substack.com/p/retro-room
November 21, 2025 at 12:49 PM
A couple of months ago I wrote about my "retro room" that I set up. I finally got a real Super Nintendo console with a modified cartridge slot, so it can play Japanese Super Famicom games as well. This stuff was great. thedeletedscenes.substack.com/p/retro-room
In another piece on this same question, I put it more succinctly thedeletedscenes.substack.com/p/does-anyon...
November 19, 2025 at 3:37 PM
In another piece on this same question, I put it more succinctly thedeletedscenes.substack.com/p/does-anyon...
In another piece on this same question, I put it more succinctly thedeletedscenes.substack.com/p/does-anyon...
November 19, 2025 at 3:37 PM
In another piece on this same question, I put it more succinctly thedeletedscenes.substack.com/p/does-anyon...
This is funny in light of what I just wrote today thedeletedscenes.substack.com/p/are-roomma...
November 18, 2025 at 7:24 PM
This is funny in light of what I just wrote today thedeletedscenes.substack.com/p/are-roomma...
Vapor Trail, a 1989 vertical scrolling shoot-em-up, has one of the coolest background bits I've seen in one of these games: the perspective changes from overhead (like a plane) to "up" (like a rocket) with a bit of cloud background in between to mask the sudden shift
November 18, 2025 at 4:12 PM
Vapor Trail, a 1989 vertical scrolling shoot-em-up, has one of the coolest background bits I've seen in one of these games: the perspective changes from overhead (like a plane) to "up" (like a rocket) with a bit of cloud background in between to mask the sudden shift
My answer to people who see technocratic public policy solutions as sort of morally questionable thedeletedscenes.substack.com/p/are-roomma...
November 18, 2025 at 4:04 PM
My answer to people who see technocratic public policy solutions as sort of morally questionable thedeletedscenes.substack.com/p/are-roomma...
What you see in this image is more or less the “world” I could reach on foot. (All of this is just about a 10-12 minute drive from one end to the other. As a walk, it’s closer to an hour.) I spent a month here without a car, and I loved it: thedeletedscenes.substack.com/p/an-acciden...
November 17, 2025 at 4:20 PM
What you see in this image is more or less the “world” I could reach on foot. (All of this is just about a 10-12 minute drive from one end to the other. As a walk, it’s closer to an hour.) I spent a month here without a car, and I loved it: thedeletedscenes.substack.com/p/an-acciden...
This was *almost* the Big Mac recipe
November 16, 2025 at 8:11 PM
This was *almost* the Big Mac recipe
Why is it that impressionist paintings look more "real" than photorealitic ones?
November 16, 2025 at 7:39 PM
Why is it that impressionist paintings look more "real" than photorealitic ones?
I wonder what views!
November 16, 2025 at 4:36 PM
I wonder what views!
A little bit of what I mean when I say being around and using mechanical things unlocks part of your brain, and the shift from doing things via hardware to doing them through software/coding makes the world less intuitive and learnable to ordinary people
November 16, 2025 at 4:24 PM
A little bit of what I mean when I say being around and using mechanical things unlocks part of your brain, and the shift from doing things via hardware to doing them through software/coding makes the world less intuitive and learnable to ordinary people
Whenever I go to one of these museums, my overwhelming reaction is "what the hell happened to us?"
November 16, 2025 at 4:14 PM
Whenever I go to one of these museums, my overwhelming reaction is "what the hell happened to us?"
Not with a bang but with a whimper
November 13, 2025 at 7:02 PM
Not with a bang but with a whimper
I think it's probably hard to overstate how much stupid clickbait filler is a factor in polarization and the erosion of social trust (this is CNN)
November 13, 2025 at 12:41 AM
I think it's probably hard to overstate how much stupid clickbait filler is a factor in polarization and the erosion of social trust (this is CNN)
It is 100% true that these AI bots talk like dishonest, narcissistic con-men (I’m trying to out the history of a unique sign!)
November 12, 2025 at 11:06 PM
It is 100% true that these AI bots talk like dishonest, narcissistic con-men (I’m trying to out the history of a unique sign!)
This fire station from the 1940s (some later expansions shown here) is not only still standing, but still basically looks the same, if you squint a little bit thedeletedscenes.substack.com/p/archive-di...
November 12, 2025 at 3:06 PM
This fire station from the 1940s (some later expansions shown here) is not only still standing, but still basically looks the same, if you squint a little bit thedeletedscenes.substack.com/p/archive-di...
Oh. But he thinks the NYC subway can be made not just safer but "crime-free"!
November 12, 2025 at 2:32 PM
Oh. But he thinks the NYC subway can be made not just safer but "crime-free"!
I learned this from Adam Minter’s book “Secondhand,” which is a really fascinating deep dive into secondhand retail (including but not limited to the old-school thrift store chains in the U.S.) thedeletedscenes.substack.com/p/not-doing-...
November 11, 2025 at 3:30 PM
I learned this from Adam Minter’s book “Secondhand,” which is a really fascinating deep dive into secondhand retail (including but not limited to the old-school thrift store chains in the U.S.) thedeletedscenes.substack.com/p/not-doing-...
This is not what this piece is about (it’s about large companies apparently having no pride in the quality of their products or services) but this is a thing I think about a lot thedeletedscenes.substack.com/p/part-of-wh...
November 10, 2025 at 2:12 PM
This is not what this piece is about (it’s about large companies apparently having no pride in the quality of their products or services) but this is a thing I think about a lot thedeletedscenes.substack.com/p/part-of-wh...