title: Convert text to 7-bit ASCII from command-line
body: <p>I'm on OS X 10.5.5 (though it does not matter much I guess)</p>
  
  <p>I have a set of text files with fancy characters like double backquotes, ellipsises ("...") in one character etc. </p>
  
  <p>I need to convert these files to good old plain 7-bit ASCII, preferably without losing character meaning (that is, convert those ellipses to three periods, backquotes to usual "s etc.).</p>
  
  <p>Please advise some smart command-line (bash) tool/script to do that.</p>