
Despite my diligent efforts to create and edit files exclusively in UNIX mode with Emacs, once in a while I will open a document and find it peppered with the annoying ^M characters that represent carriage returns (as opposed to linefeeds.)
Copying the ^M character and attempting to yank it into the query-replace minibuffer doesn't work. Enter a convenient key combo to represent the escape char, C-q C-m. (The equivalent key combo for linefeeds is C-q C-j)
So to replace all CR characters with LF characters from the cursor to the end of the buffer, do like so:
M-%
Query replace: C-q C-m with: C-q C-j