Yup, the corporate machine that once accounted for fully 10% of the American Economy filed for Chapter 11 protection in court this very morning. I’ll leave the hardcore analysis to the experts (Dan Neil, Robert Farago, Michael Moore, P.J. O’Rourke) and instead admit that I’m a little bit sad. I grew up in a GM household (my first car was a Pontiac) back during the time when despite knowing better, grown men would argue until the wicks wore out whether a Chevy truck was superior to a Ford. Sure, both vehicles were nearly identical (and were identically hammered together by drunken apes) but you chose sides then. Coke vs. Pepsi, Springfield vs. Shelbyville, Mary Anne vs. Ginger. None of it really mattered or made much sense, but you had to choose. My grandfather chose Cadillac over Lincoln, so there you go (jump).

Of course my Grandpa Jack chose Cadillac back when Cadillac was the “Standard of the World.” He had a black 1953 Eldorado, a car so impossibly beautiful it shouldn’t have existed and the same car that President Eisenhower drove (er, got driven in). And his parents were immigrant farmers — amazing. Of course him and my Uncle Buddy plowed into a black cow one moonless night while cruising rural Vermont — but he replaced it with a Buick Roadmaster. Yet take a look at the porterhouse steak and french fries Eldo that Caddy was selling just 20 years later (up top). Definitely not any sort of world standard. Here’s the thing — while the luxury was no longer top shelf there was just so much of it. And in the end, the same could be said for GM. You may now resume tweeting your cat pics. [Source: MSNBC, Wonkette]