Why we don't have ads on our blog.

I suppose at some point we might, but for now, I just find this kind of thing scary. This is a copy of the sidebar of another Catholic web page, which need not be named, because it's not their fault. I'm not sure you have any control over the ads that pop up on your site. But when I'm researching saints and stuff, I just don't need to see what's at the bottom. In fact I never need to see it, not even by accident in the bedroom mirror. (Oh and please don't take the quiz. The photo is there to make a point, not to tempt you.)

Do you pray for your priest? Often Sometimes Not really    See Results    Poll Archive Most Popular    READ        SEARCHED      E_MAILED    1. Jesus Breaks the Habit of Putting Limits on Our Love 2. Don Alvaro, witness of fidelity 3. Vatican warns against misinterpreting international law, human rights 4. Pope Francis: Satan Seduces Us by Disguising Evil as Good 5. HOPE: Here is your part 6. St. Francis of Paola, Saint Ebba the Younger and Companions 7. Introduction Synod of Bishops on the Family 2014 8. The Gift of Grandparents 9. Monday of the Twenty-seventh Week in Ordinary Time 10. Bl Mother Teresa of Calcutta; St Bertinus; St Lawrence of Justinian

Because laugh you must. There is no try.

Oh my. I haven't visited CakeWrecks for soooooo long. But it's as funny as ever. Her commentary is as good as the photos.

Decided to post something light-hearted, so that I don't get accused of being negative all the time. And besides, it's THE EASTER SEASON!!!
.

I suddenly need another coffee mug

I don't know why, because I don't even have a job in an office where I can show these off. But I guess it's about things giving you joy, not about making an impression on other people.

Abandon the one true God

And idolatry comes tripping along, in many forms. You'd think this would be self-evident, but we live in strange times.

Don't make food the most important focus of your life.

For so many of us, no matter where we sit on the spectrum, it's easier said than done. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. One man's kale is another man's triple fudge brownie cake.
.

Hammersley teacups and other delights

Hammersley china is truly lovely. I'd never heard of the company before, but then I am relatively new to the whole antiques/vintage thing. You can find out more here.  This teacup was given to me last Christmas season by an uncle who was divesting himself of some of his kitchen stuff (some of which had belonged to his late sister/my aunt). There were several pretty things, but this teacup absolutely stood out from the pack. 

Looks so cute beside my little Brown Betty English teapot. 

See more teacups here. 

Would you like to post a comment on DOH?

Good luck with that! I'm so frustrated by the way this blog server "functions" (not). I can't tell you how often people have told me (either by phone, email, or in person) that they have tried to leave comments on the blog and not been able to. And being computer-illiterate, I have no idea what to do about it.

I mean, what part of "Anyone" does Blogger.com NOT understand? Mrs. Beazly, maybe it's time to find another server/host/thingy.

Who can comment?

Anyone - includes Anonymous Users   Registered User - includes OpenID   User with Google Accounts   Only members of this blog

I put this to the young gentlemen of my acquaintance who may be considering priesthood

Recently hired Diocesan Minister

 for Coordination and Facilitation

  

For example, would a sight of two priests twirling a-tippytoe like big-bellied ballerinas at an Easter Vigil service, along with a troop of girls waving scarves and sashes, for six minutes and more,to Aaron Copland’s arrangement of The Lord of the Dance, have any natural appeal whatsoever to the overwhelming majority of boys and young men who know to what sex they belong?

Bwahaha! Anthony Esolen again. 

At one point, he muses: "I sometimes wonder whether we Catholics actually want vocations to the priesthood." 

Oh Buddy, I don't "wonder"--I've heard it from the horse's mouth. In this case a priest (now deceased, God rest his soul) who said, "The Vocations Crisis is GOD'S WILL, so that the laity gets more involved in the Church." 

Do Catholics want priests? First you have to assume "Catholics" denotes a homogeneous group, which it does not. Some of us want priests, and some of us want the Church to be a Big Comfy Couch...with Communion. 

Clown Minister, dialoguing/collaborating with 

Puppet of St. Therese, to whom the women at the Healing Workshop are encouraged to "speak their pain."

Oh yes, there is pain.

.

George Orwell, call the head office of your Hymnody Division

Yo, God, I did you a favour and came to church; 

you're welcome.

Anthony Esolen. Oy, but this guy is brilliant. And funny (to wit: "Muddlesome broke out in hives at leadeth and feedeth.") He had me laughing out loud at, "Fetch the smelling salts, Nellie..."

"Rescuing Hymnody from Stupidity":

To Muddlesome, “the vernacular” meant the colloquial: an office memo ending with an amen. That’s all. He’s no linguist; just as the people who vandalized our churches were not painters or sculptors. He can’t imagine that a mother tongue might “contain multitudes,” including the register of the sacred. He’s a subtractor. If peasants want to be courtly in their oral poetry and folk hymns, too bad for them. Drag them into Future Church for their own good.

 So he had to eliminate those pronouns...

Thus openeth the first Can of Worms.

And my, how far those worms can travel. I actually heard an ordained personage (who has been through like, a hundred years of university and everything) say (out loud) from the ambo: "God calls us to Godself." (Not "himself". Godself.) So allergic was he to masculine pronouns, even referring to GOD THE FATHER (is Jesus' testimony in that regard not enough? Gee, I don't think the chain of authority for Christianity goes any higher than that, but whatever), that instead of uttering a grammatically correct statement, he was willing to sound as though he was having a stroke. But I digress. That was a homily, not a hymn. But church "music" has fared no differently. Read Mr Esolen's article if you share my frustration that we began the century* with hymns like this:

 To Jesus Christ, our Sov'reign King,
Who is the world's salvation,
All praise and homage do we bring,
And thanks and adoration.

Refrain:
Christ Jesus Victor, Christ Jesus Ruler!
Christ Jesus, Lord and Redeemer!

2. Thy reign extend, O King benign,
To ev'ry land and nation,
For in Thy kingdom, Lord divine,
Alone we find salvation.
(Refrain)

3. To Thee and to Thy Church, great King,
We pledge our hearts' oblation,
Until before Thy throne we sing,
In endless jubilation.

--by Msgr Martin Hellreigel

ex-pat German priest, *1941, so... a comment on Fascism

And ended the century with campfire songs like this:

Thank you, God, for giving us us.
Thank you, God, for giving us us.
Thank you, God, for giving us us.
Riiiiiiiiiiiiii-ght where we are!
--ex-Rev. Carey Landry

Peace out.


.

Code Blue

I feel another business opportunity coming on: manufacturing T-shirts in blue (or really, any colour) that read: I WILL NOT BE BULLIED INTO WEARING PINK.

The Prophet Steyn (pbuh):

"Awareness-raising"? I think we need to raise awareness that, unless you've got the T-shirt concession, all these Pink Days are worthless crap that do nothing for the problem they claim to be addressing. If you've chanced to see me in person, you'll know I often wear a pink shirt. Like the country song says, "I Was Pink Shirt When Pink Shirt Wasn't Cool — Er, Mandatory." But, on Pink Shirt Day, I would wear mauve or turquoise or chartreuse or anything but pink, because, when the state is committed to coercing a ruthless conformity, that's the time to show that a flickering flame of the contrarian, iconoclastic spirit still flickers in the Canadian schoolhouse. You may get bullied for not wearing pink on the Day of Pink, but you'll feel better for it.

You are not supposed to be weary of the world, only 4 days into the Easter Season, but I'm getting there. Time to stop reading current events and Pray.
.

Ice and snow, bless the Lord.

Thank goodness for Morning Prayer, which puts things in perspective. 

The angels would have to wear winter coats in my neighbourhood this morning. 

Happy Easter! (I typed a Freudian slip and initally wrote Happy Eater!) Actually, I am not a happy eater this morning, having passed my sugar threshold two days ago. I'm craving unsweetened oatmeal at this point. We also woke up to gloomy skies and SNOW on the ground this morning. I am not alone in being totally ready for spring. But Christ is Risen! So that sun has to come out sooner or later!
.

"Millennials don’t polish silver."

Well, good for you, kids! Actually, a lot of Boomers won't polish silver either. However, some of us don't mind doing it  (once every 20 years, that is), so kindly just leave us to our silver tea sets and vintage flatware. You've got your "Likes" on Facebook, your Instagram, and your Twitter--just don't y'all go feeling smug and self-righteous about your tiny homes and your not having stuff (sadly, some of the "clutter" that Millennials have given up on having includes "kids").

Everybody seems to like shiny things. I personally prefer drinking out of mine (with a friend is best), where others prefer watching YouTube videos or texting on their shiny things. Same difference. I love my recently acquired vintage Kings Crown (ruby red flashed) "thumbprint" wine/water goblets, cordial glasses, and footed dessert bowls (photos to follow), but if you feel all cozy and homey and fulfilled by the sight of your iPhone on your minimalist acrylic coffee table, more power to you.

By the way, I have yet to cash in on all (or any) of these people who are allegedly selling lovely vintage or antique dining sets. I've been searching for nearly two years, in two provinces, and still haven't found one in good shape. In the meantime, I'm enjoying the influx of cool vintage stuff to thrift stores. My kids can trash it all when I'm gone, and according to the article linked above, they will. C'est la vie.

From our 'Bureaucracy is a Tool of the Devil" file

Cardinal Pell's reforms at the Vatican, and how the first round of resistance against him failed. (I hope he wears a Kevlar vest.)

But calumny, alas, is what happens when people who have long thought of the Church as their private property, and perhaps even their private piggy-bank, run into a determined and incorruptible reformer who understands that financial probity is essential to our being the “Church in permanent mission” to which Pope Francis has called us.

H/t Peter R on Facebook
.

I am not crazy

Family Circus archives

I am not crazy. I am not talking to myself. I am a homeschooling mom, and I'm having a parent-teacher interview.

A blast from the past: here's one of the first articles I ever published about homeschooling. It first appeared in Nazareth: A Catholic Family Journal, oh, I'm going to guess 1998. I've had the odd request for this one, and since the now defunct NJ magazine is not archived online, here it is.

I agree with Simcha: Ditch the Prom

Classic Simcha. This is a great article, and you should pop over and read it for yourself, especially if you have kids in high school. (h/t Daria on FB)

The prom has long since ceased to be formal and dignified. It's a circus at best or (no apologies) a Slutstravaganza at worst. It's hard to believe that in some parts of the world, girls want to go to prom mostly naked and (so to speak) drop acid, and in other parts of the world, girls have to wear body bags in public, and sometimes get acid thrown in their faces, just for wanting to go to school.

Never give up on a dream

Follow your Dreams

Believe in Your Dreams

Don't Stop Believing...in Your Dreams

Dream for Tomorrow...Today

Today is the Tomorrow you Worried About Yesterday

Trust in Tomorrow 

Today is the First Day of the Rest of Your Life

...as a Quadriplegic if You're Foolish Enough to Drink and Drive

Word: homeschooling. My first three high school "seniors" (graduates) never wanted so much as a dinner or even a small family party to mark the occasion (which is a bit sad, but there you have it). #4 is having a grad party: along with the families of 3 other cousins, we rented a church hall and are having a by-invitation potluck dinner and an old-fashioned dance, with real music and real dancing. But you don't need to homeschool: any student and his family could do the same. And yes, I do realize that some schools are good, and have nice proms and graduation ceremonies on a relatively modest scale. 

I'm just not much for that sort of thing. When I graduated from high school, I was part of a rebel movement to have our theme be: "Another Brick in the Wall" (yes, we wanted the Pink Floyd ditty as our grad theme song). We had votes on our side, but the Principal vetoed it. He could not, however, stop me from wearing a Halloween costume to my graduation, which I did. (Relax, it was a gown, but I'd borrowed it from my sister, who had worn it as a Halloween costume, which I also did six months before I wore it to grad. It was a peach-coloured lacy pioneer-lady type gown. The material point is that I paid nothing for it, and was not the least bit freaked or ashamed that I had not kept it under wraps --like a wedding gown!-- as some folk apparently think is necessary.)

I guess I also have a thing about long, boring speeches. At my husband's convocation from Engineering, I slipped out as soon as I saw him receive his degree, and went shopping at a nearby mall. At my own convocation, as soon as I received my degree, I slipped out and went to play in a badminton tournament with Mrs. Beazly. Good times.
.

Well, there's a surprise!

Not quite all of them, but you apprehend my meaning...

I'm treating this as good news, because it sounds as though it's starting to unravel from within, and why wouldn't it? A house divided against itself cannot stand. Best part: it's mainly the fault of the novel's "writer" because she's so difficult to work with. I can only imagine what a nightmare that poor screenwriter had, trying to make a script from the literary equivalent of a 500-page scam/porn email from "Bambi" in Nigeria. 

But don't take my word for it, because I haven't (and cannot and will not) read the book. But others have fallen on the sword, for the good of humanity and the written word.

Best review ever.

He had me at: "If Jane Austen (another bestselling female British author) came back to life and read this book, she would kill herself."

.

Phoning it in for the Annunciation

Due once more to busy-ness and lack of time (Confession service tonight at church, early supper, so forth)... shamelessly cutting and pasting this prayer from my favourite Liturgy of the Hours site, Divine Office.org.

Now, let us say it together:
Jesus, Mary and Joseph,
In you we contemplate
The splendour of true love,
We turn to you with confidence.

Holy Family of Nazareth,
Make our families, also,
Places of communion and cenacles of prayer,
Authentic schools of the Gospel,
And little domestic Churches.

Holy Family of Nazareth
May our families never more experience
Violence, isolation, and division:
May anyone who was wounded or scandalized
Rapidly experience consolation and healing.

Holy Family of Nazareth,
May the upcoming Synod of Bishops
Re-awaken in all an awareness
Of the sacred character and inviolability of the family,
Its beauty in the project of God.

Jesus, Mary and Joseph,
Hear and answer our prayer. Amen.
.

Happy birthday, Mom

Fun fact (well, terribly tragic, in Marilyn's case): What do my mom and Marilyn Monroe have in common? (Besides both being beautiful and knowing how to rock a 50s frock)

Answer: they were both pregnant 13 times. Marilyn (reportedly) had 12 abortions and 1 miscarriage. Mom had 13 babies...and 50-something grandchildren (some of whom are already in heaven)...and more great-grandchildren than I have time to count (though I'm sure to get around to it when I'm feeing less lazy).
.

Home stretch of Lent: Peace be with you

In an effort to share some inspiration (hopefully), but without too much effort on my part (cuz I have school to catch up on, and so forth), I offer you my column on "peace", which was published in The Record, in May, 2012. As is entirely their prerogative, they declined to post it in the online archive of my columns. And so I offer it here, slightly edited.

"He studied corn oil..."

In other words, Woman, put on your reading glasses, or magnify the typeface! From the saint of the day, Liturgy of the Hours.

"Today we honor St. Turibio of Mogrovejo, a Spanish bishop born in 1538. The son of noble parents, he studied canon and civil law..."

With apologies for not blogging these last few days. We were on a little family holiday, and what with relaxing, having fun, working on a writing project, watching movies, going for walks, sitting in the condo and drinking tea and gazing out at the snow and majestic pines, I didn't get much blogging done. Will rectify.

Wishing you a blessed and fruitful home stretch of Lent.

.

Another reason to love Kenneth Branagh: UPDATE

As if you needed one.

Fr. Barron on the new Cinderella:

the director manages to tells the familiar fairy tale without irony, hyper-feminist sub-plots, Marxist insinuations, deconstructionist cynicism, or arch condescension.

And thus the Christian allegory shines through. I chuckled at the 'SPOILER ALERT'! near the beginning of Fr. Barron's article. Um, we all pretty much know how Cinderella ends.

UPDATE: Mr. Branagh allows the criticism to roll off his back:

In an era of revisionist fairytales such as Frozen and Maleficent, it might be a surprise to find that Branagh’s take on the story of Cinders and her glass slipper is determinedly traditionalist. “I don’t find myself so exercised by a desperation to be new,” he says...

Good on ya, buddy! If anything is getting excruciatingly stale, it's feminist/revisionist fairy tales. (PS. Little girls don't like "Frozen" because the girls are 'powerful' but because they're pretty and sing catchy songs and they have long hair and nice dresses and they're pretty.)
.

Due to lack of time

A St. Paddy's Day greeting and prayer, shamelessly stolen from Aunty Jerann's feed on Facebook.
Top o the mornin to ye!

Can't they BOTH lose?

The Clintons vs the Obamas. Could also be filed under "The Left eats its own." I don't know whom to cheer for, but I wish they could both lose. And "top aide" Valerie Jarrett? BWAHAHAHAHA. That's like saying Jim Henson was Kermit the Frog's top aide.

What's so Laetare about it?

Pope-Emeritus Benedict

wearing the traditional rose-coloured vestments

 for Laetare Sunday 

(not a recent photo, of course)

Today, the 4th Sunday of Lent is traditionally known as Laetare Sunday, or "Rejoicing Sunday" (and also by some other names). There is a nice explanation at Fathers for Good, an initiative of the Knights of Columbus.

Our parish priest who is (rejoice!) finally well enough to say Mass gave a very beautiful homily today. The central message of Christianity, he said (and I paraphrase, because I did not --regrettably-- have a recording device handy. The homily was that good) is that we are "forever loved by God." 

Wow, just let that sink in for a minute. We are FOREVER loved by God. That means always and everywhere. We always have been loved, even before we were conceived, all through every moment of our lives; all through our sins and failings--past, present and future. We are loved now, today, at this moment; we will always be loved. How much? This is how much (from the Gospel reading for today):

For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 

Yeah, I don't have to give you that citation; you know it (John 3:16), the one bible verse that everyone on the planet knows. We know it so well, we almost treat it as a cliche. But don't. It's pretty mind-blowing that God would give up his only Son for us. It's amazing enough that God would love us (as He does) despite all our sins and failings, but even more amazing that he cares enough to want to TAKE ALL THAT NEGATIVE CRAP AWAY FROM OUR LIVES.

That's what struck we about Father's homily today. He repeated that phrase a couple of times: "He takes it away..." He takes away all our pain, sin, suffering. He takes it away. Ponder on that the next time you say the Lamb of God at Mass. He takes it away. By his suffering, death and resurrection, Jesus gives us the gift of eternal life. All we have to do is believe in him and follow him.

And that's worth rejoicing over. Have a blessed remainder of the Lenten season, as we enter the final weeks before Easter.
 .

Does this mean I'm crunchy?

Last Wednesday, after many months of kids' begging for it, I made granola. (Frankly, it didn't seem fair to make it until Miss P#5 had her braces removed; I'm sure the seeds would not be fun to clean out of braces.)

Before baking

I've been making infinite variations of this recipe for as long as I've been a mom. It comes from the La Leche League Whole Foods for the Whole Family cookbook (first edition). And yes, my copy is held together by pink duct tape. 

This recipe is limited only by your imagination:

No wonder my prayer life seems to yield so little at times

I'm sometimes rather selective about how I pray. And St. Peter Chrysologus rather lays it out: you can't pick and choose; you have to go for the full meal deal.

(from the Office of Readings for yesterday, March 10.)


From a sermon by Saint Peter Chrysologus, bishop
Prayer knocks, fasting obtains, mercy receives

This is not new: it was once called "the extended family"

But it's still great to see, and in the Netherlands, of all places (where you'd kind of expect mandatory euthanasia instead).

Dutch students choose to live in nursing homes rent-free (as long as they keep the residents company)

So-called “intergenerational” projects are also springing up elsewhere in Europe...

which is great to hear. Maybe one day, Europe will even rediscover the "family." Sounds like a model well worth copying.

h/t End of your arm
.

I don't have an inner goddess; I have an inner geek

And he's an adolescent boy. The cast of Napoleon Dynamite, then and now. (Pedro looks like Johnny Depp, as if you actually needed any more incentive to click the link.) The Fun Facts are, well...fun.

The next time you have a bad day

Or if you ever feel dissatisfied with your figure, face, hair, arthritic hands, or even (as I did the other day) whine that you don't like having to wear reading glasses... pray for the courage that this woman has.

Nash jokes about sometimes feeling like a science project.

But the 61-year-old daughter of an Air Force veteran said she gets real satisfaction out of letting the doctors use her for research, and sees it as an opportunity to help wounded soldiers and 'do something good out of all of this bad.'

God bless her, and the amazing medical team who continues to help her. 

.

I honestly don't know where to file this

Under which DOH category does this story belong? 

Killer Headlines?
Beyond Satire?
Too Sad?
Dear Lord Jesus Come and End the World Because We're Mostly Nuts?

We don't (yet) have that last category, but I do actually pray it as a prayer sometimes when I am overcome by the evil and foolishness in the world, and this story has both. Ye gods, talk about First World problems.

US woman convicted of buttock-injection death (BBC News, hence "tyres")

These types of convictions are rare - the number of fatalities from backstreet buttocks injections is still low. But more people are opting for cheap, yet unregulated procedures in their quest for a bigger behind.

It can lead to horrific consequences. Some victims have been left maimed and disfigured after they put their trust in fake doctors who injected them with all kinds of substances including Krazy Glue, tyre sealant and silicone.

[...]
Many people are too embarrassed to come forward when things go wrong - there's still a huge stigma when it comes to admitting you've had enhancement on your behind.

If you want a swollen behind, there are probably a lot of people out there who would give you a good kick in the pants for free.
. 

The problem with not blogging for months

Is that there is so much to catch up on. So much has happened in the last year or so, I could probably fill a book (and I haven't ruled out the possibility of writing one, but we shall see).

In the vintage kitchen department, I've been moderately successful at finding some sweet deals. I'm glad that "thrifting" is now in vogue, because it makes me unashamed of trolling (trawling? strolling?) through second-hand stores looking for neat stuff. (Shopping for used stuff was absolutely verboten in the 70s and 80s, but then, what did we know? We wore our hair like this, for pity's sake).

  

But I digress.

When in Saskatoon, I often nip into Value Village. Last spring, both Mr. P and I were there (our van was getting an oil change at the Honda dealership next door, and we literally had nowhere else to go within walking distance). I found this sweet little sugar bowl that more or less matches a creamer I'd bought a very long time ago. What luck!

Then came Mr. P's voice from the next aisle: "Hey, isn't this like yours?" And when I turned round, I saw a real, live, vintage, actual RÖMERTOPF^® CLAY BAKER.

I already had a clay baker at home, but (lovely though it was) it wasn't a Romertopf, and it wasn't actually mine (it was borrowed from one of my sisters).  I said to him, "You realize I can't leave this here." And not just because these things run into the hundred$ (you can occasionally get them on sale, but they are rarely below $50 a pop), and the one at Value Village was priced at a ridiculous $7.99.

It was in nearly pristine condition (which meant it had been rarely, if ever, used) and it was old (predated the fall of the Berlin Wall). Major score. More on clay bakers later.

Today's Gospel

John 2:13-25: where Jesus unexpectedly shows up at the  annual diocesan $300 a plate fundraising banquet temple. We were reminded this week to take part in Share Lent (though now--quelle surprise!-- Development and Peace has expanded it to Share Year Round. They despise rich captialists, but are always happy to take their money). A letter was read that quoted a Brazilian bishop who used "root causes" and "solidarity" in the same paragraph. He lost me at "root causes."

The bishop from Brazil lauded his local Pastoral Land Commission, which is “acting against hunger, violence and the concentration of ownership of land, all of which oppose God’s plans for a more just and compassionate world.”

I'm curious to know how that 'concentration of ownership of land' comment went over with the ladies and gentlemen in the pews who would be considered "big farmers." I'll bet they had no idea that they were opposing God's plans for a more just and compassionate world. Oh well, they can make it all better by giving generously to D&P. (I'm glad the Church stopped selling Indulgences.) 

I am all for peace, justice and development, but the path to that is not via socialism and/or bureaucracy. 

Besides, when it comes to D&P, I'm still not quite over this. I prefer to donate to Catholic charities that have not, do not, and will not, ignore church teaching.
.

Lenten retreats: plus ça change

The more things change, the more they stay the same. Wacky retreats and workshops are still going on in church circles, and probably always will.

(h/t for the link: Peter Rosengren on Facebook).

“He would tell parishioners to close their eyes, relax their muscles and imagine a blue light going through their whole body and even into their organs. I sat in my pew and thought it was very odd,” said Paul Annee, an 18-year-old Catholic high-school student

 Like, this blue light? Well, okay then.

It reminds me of the column below, which I published over a decade ago in Alberta Report. It prompted Ms Shaidle (on her now defunct Relapsed Catholic blog) to call me "a brunette, Saskatoonian [sic] Ann Coulter." Heh.

The piece is archived online, but if you read it here, you don't have to pay, or even register. You're welcome.

Are you sure that's spelled correctly?

Maybe it should be spelled "Goebbels" 

Ontario doctors lose their conscience rights. 

“No rights are absolute,” said Gabel. “We may at times have to reconcile competing rights… It is to me a very Canadian place where we have come down.”

Canadian, eh? In my view, it reeks a little more of Germany, circa 1939. 

Yes, by gum, you can buy them on Amazon. 

Must have been produced at the request of the Ontario College of Physicians and Surgeons. 

Maybe in time, they'll muster the effrontery to replace the maple leaf with the symbol they really want.