Is WordPress altering your punctuation behind your back e.g. converting typewriter quotes (") to smart quotes (“ & ”)? It's down to the on-by-default wptexturize function. You can disable this by adding the following to your theme's functions.php file: remove_filter('the_content', 'wptexturize'); (for posts) and remove_filter('comment_text', 'wptexturize'); (for comments). Or, use a plugin.
2 responses to Stop WordPress character replacements
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![[Photo of Bruce McKenzie]](data:image/jpeg;base64,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)
Hmm, could this be why my update of MySQL resulted in a bunch of odd Unicode characters?
No, this isn't the problem (for certain). Looking at your source Rob I see your blog's character set is set to utf-8, which should handle entities. When comparing files during my WP upgrade I noticed two extra lines in wp-config-sample.php—which weren't there in my older config.php file. I have read that deleting these two lines (define('DB_CHARSET', 'utf8'); and define('DB_COLLATE', '');) if you edited them in, or did an automatic upgrade, can resolve problems. Maybe try that if you see these lines in your config file? See the Warning for those performing upgrades. Also, at the phpMyAdmin login screen, is your language reported as English (utf-8)?