diff --git a/textile/core.py b/textile/core.py
index 18dc8bd..cfc79b7 100644
--- a/textile/core.py
+++ b/textile/core.py
@@ -209,7 +209,6 @@ def __init__(self, restricted=False, lite=False, noimage=False,
         self.refIndex = 0
         self.block_tags = block_tags
 
-        cur = r''
         if regex_snippets['cur']:  # pragma: no branch
             cur = r'(?:[{0}]{1}*)?'.format(regex_snippets['cur'],
                                            regex_snippets['space'])
@@ -424,7 +423,7 @@ def fPBr(self, m):
             re.compile(r"<br[ ]*/?>{0}*\n(?![{0}|])".format(regex_snippets['space']),
                        re.I)
             .sub("\n", content))
-        content = re.compile(r"\n(?![\s|])").sub('<br />',content)
+        content = re.compile(r"\n(?![\s|])").sub('<br />', content)
         return '<{0}{1}>{2}{3}'.format(m.group(1), m.group(2), content, m.group(4))
 
     def doBr(self, match):
@@ -1122,11 +1121,11 @@ def storeTags(self, opentag, closetag=''):
         tags = {}
         self.refIndex += 1
         self.refCache[self.refIndex] = opentag
-        tags['open'] = self.uid + str(self.refIndex) + ':ospan ';
+        tags['open'] = self.uid + str(self.refIndex) + ':ospan '
 
         self.refIndex += 1
         self.refCache[self.refIndex] = closetag
-        tags['close'] = ' ' + self.uid + str(self.refIndex) + ':cspan';
+        tags['close'] = ' ' + self.uid + str(self.refIndex) + ':cspan'
         return tags
 
     def retrieveTags(self, text):
@@ -1139,7 +1138,6 @@ def retrieveTags(self, text):
     def fRetrieveTags(self, match):
         return self.refCache[int(match.group('token'))]
 
-
     def image(self, text):
         pattern = re.compile(r"""
             (?:[\[{{])?                # pre