[jQuery] invalid object initializer

[[EMAIL PROTECTED]]

Hello,

I'm very in-experienced in javascript, this is my second javascript /
jQuery experiment. I was wondering if someone could tell me what I'm
doing wrong:

I have the following code

        if ( \$(e.target).is('.legacy_view') ){
                \$("#loading").toggle();
                var thequery = \$("#legacy_data").val();
                alert (thequery);
                \$("#query").load("/mysite/thepage.pl", {thequery}, function(){
                        \$("#loading").toggle();
                });

thequery is data the looks like this: "Value1: 1, Value2: 2".
Basically I'm creating the list of variables with a perl script else
where, and sending them to the javascript function by a hidden form
field.

*The $'s in the javascript are esacped for perl.

Everytime I run this with thequery in my param list,  my javascript
debug window says "invalid object initializer".

Anyone know whats up here?