looking at the replace chains on s(val) reminded me of something a while back, is there a faster/better way to do this king of stuff? something like:

return s(val).replace(re, function(t){

    if( t == '>' ) return '&gt';
    if( t == '<' ) return '&lt;';
    if( t == '&' ) return '&amp;';
    if( t == '"' ) return '&quot;';
    return t;

});