Alison Purnell is chasing that PhD!

@14thcdisability

Eternal doctoral candidate currently at University of Waterloo. Medieval disability stuff. Modern disability stuff. Occasional humorous history stories. Queer, disabled, joyful. She/They. Always check the alt-text for bonus jokes.

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Alison Purnell is chasing that PhD!@14thcdisability· 20h

Adding a screenshot in case I decide to block later.

Image is a screenshot by bluesky user @nw6penguin.bsky.social, dated 4:35am on August 15th, 2026. It reads:

"The reactions to Ardays death show why this site is a bubble. Yes Cofcas is controversial but his accusations were substantiated by the guardian of all places. Arday was a publishing academic shown to be found wanting and as such should have been held accountable. That means by the press too."

Alison Purnell is chasing that PhD!@14thcdisability· 7d

I am uncomfortable when we are not about me. If the zoo bans me from hollering at the animals, I will face god and walk backwards into hell. Been working on my summer bod, is like my regular bod but has more popsackles in it.

Image is a screenshot of a tweet by "Charlie" @_35millimetre, from 4:23am on August 8th, 2022. It reads: "Turns out the world's greatest drawing of a frog was done in 1790, by Ito Jakuchu." There is said picture, a Japanese black and white watercolour of a frog sitting in the foreground with a stylised lake and a few scattered trees in the background. It is kinda goofy looking, with huge eyes with tiny pupils staring into the middle distance, and a big arched frown as if baffled by existence. It IS possibly the world's greatest drawing of a frog.

Alison Purnell is chasing that PhD!@14thcdisability· Jul 16

I keep getting this ad on my solitaire app. Probably caused by the country-only maps both the US and Canada use where anything beyond national borders is a generic void.

Image shows a clearly AI map of Canada and the US. Both countries' internal borders are approximately there, but there is a wide strip of land between them with no internal borders, labeled "UNITED sTATES". There is a Great Lakes system on the south Canada border AND between the erroneous "UNITED sTATES" and the actual US map. The effect is a surreal parfait with two America-Canada borders on either side of a hallucinatory no man's land.

Alison Purnell is chasing that PhD!@14thcdisability· Jul 1

Someone with a better eye for insignia please tell me what I'm seeing here.

Image is a youtube still from the "Episcopal consecrations" (scare quotes very much intended) of the SSPX on 1 July 2026, taken shortly before the Gloria is recited. It shows the crowd of spectators camped out on the grass behind rope barriers. There's a lot of people but of particular note is one figure in the bottom right corner who appears to be wearing a red flag with a Reichsadler ("eagle of the reich") over his shoulders. It appears to be a white man with douchy sunglasses and a ponytail. There's a big pink arrow I drew pointing at him, in hopes that someone with a better eye for insignia can tell me exactly what's on that flag.

Alison Purnell is chasing that PhD!@14thcdisability· Jun 16

See a dinosaur—post a dinosaur!

Image shows a brown triceratops toy with the body swapped for a piece of tiramisu. It is lovingly plated on a white dish with cocoa scattered around it. The caption reads "babe what's wrong you've barely touched any of your triceramisu".

Alison Purnell is chasing that PhD!@14thcdisability· Jun 10

Because being able to name the distinct parts is like being able to *see* them.

Image shows a cutaway drawing of gothic cathedral architecture, with diagram labels for all the various parts of the flying butress. The tall pointy bit on the outside is circled because I was referring to that bit at the time I saved the image. I'm extremely sorry, I am not an architect and I don't have the vocabulary to explain all the labels in the image.

Alison Purnell is chasing that PhD!@14thcdisability· May 26

Image shows a sign for Walgreen's drive-thru pharmacy, the kind with the slide-in letters. The sign advises passers by to "GET YOUR SHONGLES SHIT TODAY".

Alison Purnell is chasing that PhD!@14thcdisability· May 23

Image shows a chunk of pinkish-tan rock on a blue background. The caption reads "OUT OF NOWHERE" on top and "IT'S FUCKING FELDSPAR" on the bottom. There is no further context.

Alison Purnell is chasing that PhD!@14thcdisability· May 17

Comfort reads of younger days gone by.

Image shows a lipped table filled with an assortment of 1970s to 2000s trade paperbacks by a variety of sci-fi and fantasy authors. They're all in there with the spines facing up, in no particular order at all. Heavily represented are Anne McCaffrey, Gordon R Dickson, Piers Anthony, Orson Scott Card, and similar.

Alison Purnell is chasing that PhD!@14thcdisability· May 9

University of York wants to play i.pinimg.com/736x/82/2d/f...

Picture shows a building that looks a lot like a concrete spaceship squatting on a dingy pond.

Alison Purnell is chasing that PhD!@14thcdisability· May 9

Give me your favourite Non-Trek performance from a Star Trek actor. Can't remember the place I read it, but I have been told this is one of his own favourite non-Trek roles!

The image shows Sir Patrick Stewart in full Early Modern Shakespearean garb, declaiming "B Or Not a B" on Sesame Street. His outfit is shades of black velvet, with full, puffed sleeves and white ruffles at his wrists and collar. He's holding a 6 inch tall capital B made of yellow foam or something in his left hand, arm stretched out in front of him. He is in full orator mode, you can practically hear him rolling those deep rich Rs as he teaches preschoolers how to identify B, or NOT a B? The background is a darker shade of sky blue.

Alison Purnell is chasing that PhD!@14thcdisability· Apr 28

Without downloading anything new, where are you, mentally?

Image shows a simple illustration of a noble-looking grey mouse in chain and plate mail and a long red cloak. It is standing and holding its sword, point-down, by the golden hilt. It is looking into the distance. There are a couple sparkle outlines around it. The caption says "i'm burnt out m'lord". The watermark is for @caitlynmarieprints, platform unspecified.

Alison Purnell is chasing that PhD!@14thcdisability· Apr 23

Advisor and I made a genuine textual discovery during the writing of this, but alas the editor of the next volume of the Expositio had already noticed it! (Okay it was Advisor who spotted it but he insisted on sharing credit since it was during and because of my project.)

Image shows an old spiral-bound senior honours essay with the title "An Analysis of the Usage of Hermes Trismegistus in the 'Expositio super elementationem theologicam procli' of Berthold von Moosburg".

Alison Purnell is chasing that PhD!@14thcdisability· Apr 19

Image shows a yellow and orange background with the black silhouette of a flame on it. Inside the flame is text, in the same yellow-orange as the background, which reads 'All you had to do was pay us enough to live". There is a watermark for the artist, @BenDrawsLife.

Alison Purnell is chasing that PhD!@14thcdisability· Apr 17

Marry someone who's the same flavour of weird as you.

Image shows a short exchange of messages on Discord.
Wife: Ubi canes calides sunt?
@14thCdisability: Lmao. Left drawer.
Wife: Thanks
@14thCdisability: Cachinnans in culo meo
@14thCdisability: Did I just spend the past 6 minutes looking up how to translate LMAO? Yes

Alison Purnell is chasing that PhD!@14thcdisability· Apr 15

Sit your fool ass down you theologically illeterate newbie convert. Your RCIA director regrets ever nominating you as a confirmandus. Get fucked and I hope Leo excommunicates your heretical ass.

Image is a news headline and subheading. It reads: "Vance Says the Pope Should Be More Careful When Talking About Theology. The vice president, who is Catholic, took issue with Pope Leo XIV's statement that disciples of Christ are 'never on the side of those who once wielded the sword and today drop bombs.'"

Alison Purnell is chasing that PhD!@14thcdisability· Apr 4

Image is a drawing with caption of the Discworld character Granny Weatherwax from the chest up against an out of focus background of evergreen trees. She is wearing her usual severe expression of disapproval and her black pointed hat has hat pins in it. The caption is a quote from one of her books, and it reads "Sin, young man, is when you treat people like things. Including yourself. That's what sin is. Granny Weatherwax, Witch."

Alison Purnell is chasing that PhD!@14thcdisability· Mar 24

Here is what Google Translate makes of those four text sequences. It mistranslates the last sequence because it is prioritising word order (syntax) over the inflected endings. It also doesn't really seem to know what to do about Latin's lack of articles (the/a).

Image is a screenshot of the previous tweet's four sentences put into Google Translate. The output reads:
Boys give roses to girls.
Boys give roses to girls.
Boys give roses to girls.
Girls give roses to boys.

Alison Purnell is chasing that PhD!@14thcdisability· Mar 24

Image shows a social media post (unknown which platform) by user @MattAndersonBBC. It reads: "Things native English speakers know but don't know we know" and shows a picture of text from a book. The picture text reads: "Adjectives in English absolutely have to be in this order: opinion-size-age-shape-colour-origin-material-purpose Noun. So you can have a lovely little old rectangular green French silver whittling knife. But if you mess with that word order in the slightest you'll sound like a maniac. It's an odd thing that every English speaker uses that list, but almost none of us could write it out. And as size comes before colour, green great dragons can't exist."

Alison Purnell is chasing that PhD!@14thcdisability· Mar 24

For some reason it did not upload the image.

Image shows two facing pages from the Loeb Classical Library edition of Cicero's "De natura deorum". The right hand page is English and reads "Many views are put forward about the outward form of the gods, their dwelling-places and abodes, and mode of hfe, and these topics are debated with the widest variety of opinion among philosophers; but as to the question upon which the whole issue of the dispute principally turns, whether the gods are entirely idle and inactive, taking no part at all in the direction and government of the world, or whether on the contrary all things both were created and ordered by them in the beginning and are controlled and kept in motion by them throughout etemity, here there is the greatest disagreement of all. And until this issue is decided, mankind must continue to labour under the profoundest uncertainty, and to be in ignorance about matters of the highest moment."
The left hand page is in Latin and reads "Nam et de figuris deorum et de locis atque sedibus et de actione vitae multa dicuntur, deque his summa philosophorum dissensione certatur; quod vero maxime rem causamque continet, utrum nihil agant, nihil moliantur, omni curatione et administratione rerum vacent, an contra ab iis et a principio omnia facta et constituta sint et ad infinitum tempus regantur atque moveantur, in primis magna dissensio est, eaque nisi diiudicatur in summo errore necesse est homines atque in maximarum rerum ignoratione versari."
The verbs on the Latin page have been highlighted in blue. They are: dicuntur, certatur, continet, agant, moliantur, vacent, facta et consituta sint, regantur, moveantur, dissensio est, diiudicatur, and versari.

Alison Purnell is chasing that PhD!@14thcdisability· Mar 14

His name is Hamish MacLosgann.

Picture shows a digital sculpture of the aforementioned Hamish from the TTRPG mini designing site, Heroforge. He is standing upright like a humanoid. He is a bright olive green and is wearing a kilt and sash, a sporran, and a tam 'o shanter, and he is playing some type of bagpipes with a green bag and three drones. His eyes are reptilian and bright green.

Alison Purnell is chasing that PhD!@14thcdisability· Mar 14

Any #TreeLaw historians around?

Image is a short comic in purple monochrome.
Panel 1: A young person is holding their head in their hands in dismay, looking down at the freshly cut stump of a mature tree. They exclaim "on no! the rare cherry tree grandma brought with her from the old country! It's been chopped down!!" and then "And only a week after my new neighbour complained about it blocking his view too!"
Panel 2: From off-panel, a voice asks "Tree law?". The distressed figure looks around, startled.
Panel 3: A bald, bearded man in a suit and holding a briefcase peers around the end of a tall fence. "Tree law?" he asks.
Panel 4: A head with short dark hair and sunglasses pops up from inside a bush. "Tree law!!" it exclaims.
Panel 5: A be-suited woman with glasses and a straight bob crawls out from beneath the stump. "Tree law!!!" she exclaims with great excitement.
Panel 6: The lawyers from the previous three panels, plus a crowd of other lawyers (both foreground and distanced), are holding torches and pitchforks and hoisting the very surprised original person in the air. They are grinning and chanting "TREE! LAW! TREE! LAW!" while money rains from above.

Alison Purnell is chasing that PhD!@14thcdisability· Mar 5

Image shows text from the article in the quoted tweet. It reads:
The word for what Pinker is doing, and for the political project his comments serve, is eugenics. We are witnessing the systematic delegitimization of disabled people's claims to accommodation, support, and inclusion in public life. When you argue that disability "is being stretched into meaninglessness," you are arguing that there are too many of us, that our claims are suspect, that the systems built to include us have gone too far. That is the eugenicist position, dressed up in the language of cognitive science and delivered by a man who once used that same language to help a child rapist's lawyers argue that child rape wasn't child rape.

Alison Purnell is chasing that PhD!@14thcdisability· Mar 1

Image is an abstract-looking kaleidoscope of pinky oranges, pale blue, and grey speckles. There is no coherent form to it. In reality it is a sunrise as seen through a heavily iced/frosted window.

Alison Purnell is chasing that PhD!@14thcdisability· Feb 26

Okay but the Heath-bot does have a point

Image is from the "Allister Heath Text Generator" and looks like a headline from the British news rag The Telegraph. The headline generated is "The sinister plot to force York chicanes on the British public is a national scandal", and has Heath's byline attached. At the bottom, there is text reading "try it for yourself at tinyurl dot com slash tnw-heath

Image shows an example from google streetview of the diabolical ankle and toe smashing cycle gate known as a York chicane. It is difficult to describe but I'm doing my best. There are two upright poles placed a cycle-width apart. The left pole has an extension at the base that's just high enough for a lower cycle pedal to pass over it. The right pole has an extension at the base too high for a lower cycle pedal but juuuust low enough for a higher pedal to pass over. The effect is that for a bicycle to pass through this gate FOR BICYCLES one has to line the pedals up carefully and PRECISELY or one will get their cycle knocked awry (at best) or smash one's foot on the base (common). ASK ME HOW I KNOW. The York chicane is undoubtedly successful at its cycle-traffic-calming mission, unless one counts the effect on formerly calm cyclists now swearing a blue streak because their foot is now broken. Fittingly, the chicane pictured is situated on the driveway into one of York's hospital properties.

Alison Purnell is chasing that PhD!@14thcdisability· Feb 19

As passive-aggressive notes go, building a whole fucking castle is pretty next-level.

Picture is of an antique telegram message from Western Union Telegram on yellow paper. It reads "Fuck you. Strong letter to follow."

Alison Purnell is chasing that PhD!@14thcdisability· Feb 10

SOMEBODY SHOT THE GENERAL 😱 (Source: www.harkavagrant.com/index.php?id...)

Image is a comic strip from Kate Beaton's "Hark! A Vagrant!". There are 6 panels.
Panel 1: "Near Queenston, 1812". A close-up of General Brock is looking through a telescope. He says "The Americans have advanced too far".
Panel 2: Brock looks far too confident. He says "We must CHARGE them". An advisor asks "Who shall I give the order to?"
Panel 3: Off-panel, Brock answers "I'll lead it myself". The advisor, looking dubious, asks "General Brock, I... Aren't you a bit of an easy target for leading a charge?"
Panel 4: Brock, in full shiny uniform, asks "What do you MEAN".
Panel 5: A distance shot of the two men. The advisor says "Nothing. How silly of me". Brock brandishes a sword and says "Seriously. Need I remind you who is in charge here!"
Panel 6: AND SO. A scout appears, looking distraught, to report to the advisor. The advisor is deeply unimpressed. "Terrible news!" says the scout. The advisor asks "Did somebody shoot the general?" "SOMEBODY SHOT THE GENERAL!"

Alison Purnell is chasing that PhD!@14thcdisability· Feb 9

I find myself smack in the middle of... "Swedish Progressive Professionals" and "British Railway Enthusiasts". So who tf even knows! 😂

Picture shows a snapshot from a zoomed in portion of the galaxy map shared by the original poster, of my place on the map. There is a large cluster to the right of my mark labelled "Swedish Professional Progressives", while to the left of me is a smaller cluster (but still larger than anything else proximal) labelled "British Railway Enthusiasts".

Alison Purnell is chasing that PhD!@14thcdisability· Feb 5

That facepalm feeling when you spot an egregious [fill this in later] comment in the article you submitted for review a couple months ago.

Image shows a white cuecard on a wooden desk, in close focus. On the cuecard is written "Pain. Agony, even." in impeccable calligraphy. Image is from @theshitpostcalligrapher

Alison Purnell is chasing that PhD!@14thcdisability· Feb 4

Today I'm sitting in my gothic vibes smoking chair, with a mug of tea at my side, Thomas Hoccleve in my word processor, and Into Great Silence on the tv to keep me company. Oh, and a soft and chubby cat. It's a good day.