Curious Case - Code Does Not Work Without Alert();

I am putting together a simple edit in place script. For some reason, in order for for the editEffect function I've created to work I need to use the alert function as seen in the code below. I can't figure out the cause of the problem and I believe the root cause is also creating other problems - i.e. in the cancelEdit function the argument "targetElement" is not alerted, but it is successfully submitted as an argument to another function.

/* Edit in place javascript code */
function editLightOn(element){
element.style.backgroundColor = "#ffc";
}
function editLightOff(element){
element.style.backgroundColor = "#FFFFFF";
}
[Code]..