Using { in xtemplate for literal { character

[jazz_snob]

There has got to be a way to do this, but i haven't discovered it:

I want use literal { } characters in my xtemplate, like this: {first_name}, but xtemplate tries to parse them and of course they disappear. Any one know how to do this?

So far I've been doing a work-around where in the php I make a variable $content and stuff the string w/ the {} characters into it, then $xtpl->assign('content', $content) but it seems there should be an easier way to do this.

Thanks!