Another meaningless holiday in progress. Really, now: celebrate the semiformalistic declaration of a war that had been in progress for seven months and wouldn't be over for seven years? That's sort of like celebrating the filing of Brown v. Board of Education instead of the dates the decisions were issued—particularly since the Declaration of Independence is only modestly reflected in the Constitution. In fact, I'd propose replacing the Fourth of July with a date based upon the Constitution (either its signing or the date it came into effect), except that the barbecue weather is a helluva lot better in early July.

Which leads to a different, interesting sort of question: in terms of legal doctrines that have immediate impact upon writers, what two holidays might writers wish to add to the calendar? I have several candidates in mind, and we'll just have to see where that ends up.