You know that a grammar error irritates the heck out of you when you bring a resolution before the State House to change instances commonly used on the floor of the House of an incorrect word–physical–to the correct word–fiscal. Missouri Representative Tracy McCreery did just that. 
These two words have VERY different meanings. According to dictionary.com:
- Physical (among other definitions): of or relating to the body; tending to touch, hug, pat, etc.; requiring, characterized by, or liking rough physical contact or strenuous physical activity
- Fiscal: of or relating to the public treasury or revenues; of or relating to financial matters in general.
Obviously on the floor of the House when they are discussing the state’s finances, fiscal is the appropriate word. If they were talking about school physical education issues, it could be either–if it is a money issue, it would still be fiscal issues with the physical education program, and if it were just about the schools’ physical education program itself it would be physical. Although it seems that perhaps an email could have accomplished the same thing, I’ve got to hand it to Rep. McCreery for making a statement for proper grammar usage.
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Do you really think typographical errors don’t matter much? I read an article recently from The Washington Post about a typo that thwarted a $1 billion cyber heist on a Bangladesh bank. It seems that the hackers broke into the Bangladesh central bank’s system in February and stole the credentials necessary to authorize payment transfers. They used the Federal Reserve Bank of New York (“FRBNY”) to make nearly three dozen hefty money transfers from the Bangladesh bank’s account with the FRBNY to other overseas financial institutions.
