[pmwiki-users] escape variables skin template

[Ryan O'Toole]

I need my skin template to contain the text: $action, but PM keeps
parsing it as the variable $action. I know I need to escape it, but
the markup for escaping text [= ... =] isn't working from inside the
skin template.

How can I escape text in a skin template (NOT page markup) that would
otherwise be replaced as a page variable?

Help!

~ryan