diff --git a/IkiWiki/Plugin/mdwn.pm b/IkiWiki/Plugin/mdwn.pm
index 254ab51d0..1520b3eec 100644
--- a/IkiWiki/Plugin/mdwn.pm
+++ b/IkiWiki/Plugin/mdwn.pm
@@ -41,6 +41,8 @@ sub htmlize (@) { #{{{
 		require Encode;
 	}
 	
+	my $oneline = $content !~ /\n/;
+
 	# Workaround for perl bug (#376329)
 	$content=Encode::encode_utf8($content);
 	eval {$content=&$markdown_sub($content)};
@@ -50,6 +52,13 @@ sub htmlize (@) { #{{{
 	}
 	$content=Encode::decode_utf8($content);
 
+	if ($oneline) {
+		# hack to get rid of enclosing junk added by markdown
+		$content=~s!^<p>!!;
+		$content=~s!</p>$!!;
+		chomp $content;
+	}
+
 	return $content;
 } # }}}
 
diff --git a/IkiWiki/Plugin/meta.pm b/IkiWiki/Plugin/meta.pm
index 42fddb0bb..d2c6e7f8b 100644
--- a/IkiWiki/Plugin/meta.pm
+++ b/IkiWiki/Plugin/meta.pm
@@ -46,18 +46,10 @@ sub scrub ($) { #{{{
 sub htmlize ($$$) { #{{{
 	my $page = shift;
 	my $destpage = shift;
-	my $text = shift;
 
-	$text=IkiWiki::htmlize($page, pagetype($pagesources{$page}),
+	return IkiWiki::htmlize($page, pagetype($pagesources{$page}),
 		IkiWiki::linkify($page, $destpage,
-		IkiWiki::preprocess($page, $destpage, $text)));
-
-	# hack to get rid of enclosing junk added by markdown
-	$text=~s!^<p>!!;
-	$text=~s!</p>$!!;
-	chomp $text;
-
-	return $text;
+		IkiWiki::preprocess($page, $destpage, shift)));
 }
 
 sub preprocess (@) { #{{{
@@ -184,7 +176,7 @@ sub preprocess (@) { #{{{
 	}
 	elsif ($key eq 'link') {
 		if (%params) {
-			$meta{$page}.=scrub("<link href=\"".encode_entities($value)."\" ".
+			push @{$meta{$page}}, scrub("<link href=\"".encode_entities($value)."\" ".
 				join(" ", map {
 					encode_entities($_)."=\"".encode_entities(decode_entities($params{$_}))."\""
 				} keys %params).
diff --git a/IkiWiki/Plugin/table.pm b/IkiWiki/Plugin/table.pm
index ddc2f68be..20c71e1c7 100644
--- a/IkiWiki/Plugin/table.pm
+++ b/IkiWiki/Plugin/table.pm
@@ -174,17 +174,9 @@ sub genrow ($$$@) { #{{{
 sub htmlize ($$$) { #{{{
 	my $page = shift;
 	my $destpage = shift;
-	my $text = shift;
 
-	$text=IkiWiki::htmlize($page, pagetype($pagesources{$page}),
-		IkiWiki::preprocess($page, $destpage, $text));
-
-	# hack to get rid of enclosing junk added by markdown
-	$text=~s!^<p>!!;
-	$text=~s!</p>$!!;
-	chomp $text;
-
-	return $text;
+	return IkiWiki::htmlize($page, pagetype($pagesources{$page}),
+		IkiWiki::preprocess($page, $destpage, shift));
 }
 
 1
diff --git a/debian/changelog b/debian/changelog
index 3bebe7f25..ee2ecc4d5 100644
--- a/debian/changelog
+++ b/debian/changelog
@@ -17,6 +17,10 @@ ikiwiki (2.20) UNRELEASED; urgency=low
   * template: Remove bogus htmlize pass added in 2.16.
   * template: Htmlize template variables, but also provide a raw version
     via `<TMPL_VAR raw_variable>`.
+  * mdwn: When htmlizing text, if it's a single line with no newline,
+    remove the enclosing paragraph and newline markdown wraps it in.
+    This allows removing several hacks around this markdown behavior from
+    other plugins that htmlize fragements of pages.
 
  -- Joey Hess <joeyh@debian.org>  Wed, 09 Jan 2008 00:34:46 -0500
 
diff --git a/po/ikiwiki.pot b/po/ikiwiki.pot
index 2af29ad46..73fd91b85 100644
--- a/po/ikiwiki.pot
+++ b/po/ikiwiki.pot
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ msgid ""
 msgstr ""
 "Project-Id-Version: PACKAGE VERSION\n"
 "Report-Msgid-Bugs-To: \n"
-"POT-Creation-Date: 2008-01-09 14:04-0500\n"
+"POT-Creation-Date: 2008-01-09 14:31-0500\n"
 "PO-Revision-Date: YEAR-MO-DA HO:MI+ZONE\n"
 "Last-Translator: FULL NAME <EMAIL@ADDRESS>\n"
 "Language-Team: LANGUAGE <LL@li.org>\n"
@@ -240,15 +240,15 @@ msgstr ""
 msgid "failed to load Markdown.pm perl module (%s) or /usr/bin/markdown (%s)"
 msgstr ""
 
-#: ../IkiWiki/Plugin/meta.pm:132
+#: ../IkiWiki/Plugin/meta.pm:124
 msgid "stylesheet not found"
 msgstr ""
 
-#: ../IkiWiki/Plugin/meta.pm:156
+#: ../IkiWiki/Plugin/meta.pm:148
 msgid "redir page not found"
 msgstr ""
 
-#: ../IkiWiki/Plugin/meta.pm:169
+#: ../IkiWiki/Plugin/meta.pm:161
 msgid "redir cycle is not allowed"
 msgstr ""