Figured it out. User error.
The wp_head() directive in my theme’s header.php got misplaced inside a pair of style tags, thus the script wasn’t executing. Moved it out and everything was happy again. The escaping I reported is apparently normally (per a WP support ticket I found) though Firebug didn’t like it when I copy/pasted it into the console (=red herring).
Thanks.
Thanks, but I’m looking for a way to have two views of the same post, for all categories. It seems analogous to how the print page works: a pared down template showing the same content.
Something like this:
single.php -> standard view for all posts
custom_single.php -> alt view for all posts
Perhaps I can detect a query parameter that I’ll add to the link for the alt view, then follow the pattern used above?