Who write's some of this stuff??? Gremlin bash in Wikipedia (now corrected)

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I edited this article at www.Wikipedia.org recently. Some people write
and/or edit articles that have no business doing so (do I? some might
think not...)! I edited out a comment someone made in the AMC V-8
Engines section about how their 304 car ran. It was clearly something
that would have been on a message board or should have been in the
discussion area. I have since started opening discussion areas in any
article I edit. Just post a message to open it! Most people don't
realize how to open the area (I didn't for a while), they just clicked
on the tab and saw nothing. If something in an article is questionable,
put it in the discussion area. If you know for a fact it's wrong, check
your references (NEVER go by memory -- like the ballast resistor
explanation I wrote recently, got things all wrong even though I knew
what I meant to say!!), then post. You may want to add your reference in
the discussion or at the bottom of the page if there's a reference area.



---- original article -----------------------------------
The Gremlin is a now legendary figure in the halls of poor vehicles, and
was ranked #4 in Car Talk's Worst Car of the Millennium contest (Car
Talk is a radio talk show broadcast weekly on National Public Radio
stations throughout the United States and elsewhere). It has since
entered what appears to be a never-ending but sparse series of negative
references in popular culture. Presumably this will taper off in the
future as the Generation Y contingent overtakes Gen X and the Baby
Boomers as the driving force in pop culture - Gen Y comes after the age
of the Gremlin. Paradoxically, the Gremlin's poor design is the very
thing that is keeping it off the road, and therefore out of the minds of
people as a bad car. In a further paradox - this one a Catch-22 - the
appearance of a working Gremlin in a piece of fiction tends to indicate
that the cars tended toward functionality (after all, how many 1970s
cars are left in this world today?)

---- article as it reads now -------------------------------------
The Gremlin is a now (somewhat unjustly) legendary figure in the halls
of poor vehicles, along with the AMC Pacer and was ranked #4 in Car
Talk's Worst Car of the Millennium contest. It should be noted that this
contest is a public popular vote, not based on any specific criteria. 

The Gremlin has since entered what appears to be a never-ending but
sparse series of negative references in popular culture. Could this be
due to the fact that AMC is no longer around to object?  Presumably this
will taper off in the future as the Generation Y contingent overtakes
Gen X and the Baby Boomers as the driving force in pop culture -- Gen Y
comes after the age of the Gremlin. It has recently (2000-2005) become
almost a 70s icon -- everyone still loves to pick on the Gremlin's
unusual shape, but it's easily recognizable as a 70s car. That
recognition keeps earning it appearances in "retro" commercials. Most
people don't realize just how successful the Gremlin was for AMC,
however, so the joke goes on...
-----------------------------------------------

If you feel you can add to articles in Wikipedia on AMC subjects please
do so! If you're going to edit much, it is best to register and log in.
Then you will be given credit for the editing and others can reach you
if there are questions. Remember that this is an encyclopedia, and
opinions should be minimal. I could (should?) have taken some of what's
obviously opinion out of the existing article, but didn't ant to edit to
much. I don't think many AMCers will disagree that the Gremlin doesn't
get much respect, which is what this portion of the article implies. 




MSgt Frank Swygert
436 CES/CECM (MilCon)
302-677-6436, Cell 302-363-0530