click to enlarge Image via Youtube

Hey, Missouri Legislature, let's get fiscal and leave the physical to Olivia Newton-John.

click to enlarge Image via Missouri House of Representatives

State Rep. Tracy McCreey (D-St. Louis) is asking her colleagues to stop saying 'physical' when they mean 'fiscal.'

It’s come to this.A state rep from St. Louis, unable to take it any longer, has filed a resolution asking her colleagues in the House of Representatives to please, please stop using the word “physical” when talking about Missouri’s fiscal needs.“Whereas, on occasion, members of the Missouri House of Representatives have used the word ‘physical’ instead of ‘fiscal’ when referring to fiscal matters including, but not limited to, fiscal review and fiscal notes…” begins House Resolution 1220 , offered by Rep. Tracy McCreery.The not-so-subtle prod has begun making the rounds on social media, and lots of people are having a good laugh, but McCreery tells theshe didn’t push the resolution as a joke.“I did it because I hit a wall,” she says in a phone interview.The sound of lawmakers screwing up even basic terms as they debate critical financial decisions has become like “nails on a chalkboard” to McCreery and a few of her grammatically sound colleagues.“There are a lot of reasons to be depressed about the Missouri Legislature, and this just kind of piles on,” she says.The problem is not misinterpreted accent or a once-in-a-blue-moon slip of the tongue, according to McCreery.“It happens pretty much daily,” she says. “It really does.”And, no, she’s not naming names, despite our urging. Nobody has publicly taken offense yet, which is understandable — Who wants to admit to being an idiot?McCreery is hoping the resolution serves as a “gentle nudge” to her colleagues in the chamber to take a little more care with their words.We laugh until we cry.