Everybody jumped on this one!!! I too made a fiddle:
http://jsfiddle.net/audetwebdesign/kh4aR/
RobAgar gets a point for pointing out white-space:nowrap
first.
Couple of things here, you need overflow: hidden
if you don't want to see the extra characters poking out into your layout.
Also, as mentioned, you could use white-space: pre
(see EnderMB) keeping in mind that pre
will not collapse white space whereas white-space: nowrap
will.