Strange MySQL Query Problem

I have a simple form which queries the database based on 2 pop-up menu choices and keywords entered by the user, it passes on the variables as follows: pop-up1=choice1, pop-up2=choice2, textfield=user specified data the query is as follows $result = mysql_query("SELECT some_id, some_description, some_feature FROM '$pop-up1' WHERE some_description LIKE '%$texfield%' AND some_feature LIKE '%$pop-up2'"); it tells me that column which equals to the $texfield does not exists, a bit buffled I am, I've these queries before on larger web servers, this is the first time on my workstation and it does just that, simpler queries work fine... thanks in advance, R> ps. the form is guarded against empty entries ps2. RedHat 7.3, Mysql 3.23.51, Apache 1.3+ wik PHP 4.2.1 configured for MySQL