[javascript] How can I pass arguments to anonymous functions in JavaScript?

Event handlers expect one parameter which is the event that was fired. You happen to be renaming that to 'myMessage' and therefore you are alerting the event object rather than your message.

A closure can allow you to reference the variable you have defined outside the function however if you are using Jquery you may want to look at its event specific API e.g.

http://docs.jquery.com/Events/bind#typedatafn

This has an option for passing in your own data.