With the World Series and the presidential campaign FINALLY over, I can go back to mindless, uninterrupted-except-for-normal-commercials television watching. Thank goodness!

Is it just me, or does the baseball season seem to take longer and longer each year? Why do they need to play over 100 games and then go through two rounds of best of five playoffs? And the World Series itself is best of seven! What the hell is that all about? Maybe I’m just too much of a football fan. Regular season of 16 games, and you get to play others in your division once in your house and once in theirs. Period. Playoffs? Lose and you’re out. Period. Let’s move on to THE big game. End of season, except for the Pro Bowl for those who aren’t too banged up.

As for the presidential election, the whole sorting out who’s running and the primary thing shouldn’t start until the year of the election. Seriously. No declaring your candidacy until January 1st of the election year. Not two years before. And then you have 6 months to win your party’s nomination. Period. With the travel options and technology available today, candidates shouldn’t need more than that. And while this plan may cut into running mate vetting time (down to one quick phone call instead of an hour face-to-face interview, maybe?), I think it will also tell us how organized a candidate is, how well they think on their feet.

So, shorten the baseball and campaign seasons. And give us back our mindless entertainment. Oh, wait, I said the campaigning was over, didn’t I?