Adding to @alexg and @Jay:
It sounds like you want the functionality of the title attribute but, instead of a popup, the title text goes to a predefined box.
I would recommend using the title attr because this will still work if js is disabled. Then I suppose you could use hover (mouseenter / mouseleave) actions like:
mouseenter: remove the title from the link but use it for the contents of '#ll p' mouseleave: restore the original title to the link and the original contents of #ll p
I'm not really a jQuery guy, but something like :
$(function() { var text, title; $('#hmenu li a').hover( function() { var $p = $('#ll p'), $a = $(this); text = $p.text(); title = $a.attr('title'); $a.attr('title',''); $p.text(title); }, function() { $('#ll p').text(text); $(this).attr('title', title); } ) }); #hmenu becomes
<ul id="hmenu"> <li><a class="active" href="#" title="My home, the front page and the main page">HOME</a></li> <li><a href="#" title="Glad I'm not there now">WORK</a></li> <li><a href="#" title="You really have to see this">PORTFOLIO</a></li> <li><a href="#" title="I'm interesting once you get to know me">ABOUT</a></li> <li><a href="#" title="Shazam">CONTACT</a></li> </ul>