That is /bizarre/. Sorry, I have no idea. But at least I've incremented my post count.
Whew. I'm still boggling at it, but I can't see a problem. Sorry. The closest thing I have to a suggestion is something to do with the backticks or a line terminator but I really can't see how either of those is at fault - the line with the backticks is obviously working with the echo commented out, and the backticks will not have left a line terminator on your variable, whic shouldn't cause problems even if they did.
It really boggles the mind. All I can suggest is taking the quotes off the echo "$choice" line; it doesn't make sense, but when all else fails, rephrase the code pointlessly.
