Part way there… what am I doing wrong??

Thank you drmanry! It works! It works! 88 miles per hour!

For afandi2, and anyone else who needs it, here is what I have to display a list of posts from another category, which varies according to what category the user is in (e.g., it changes the list of posts in the sidebar depending on what category the current post/page is in).

This may be useful if, like me, you have child sub-categories but you need a list of posts from them to appear on posts/pages located in the parent directory. Paste the code below into a template page, just change the 14 and 22 below to your relevant categories:

<?php
if  (in_category(14)) {
        echo "<li id='recent'><ul class='recent'><li>";
        echo('<ul>');
        query_posts('cat=22');
        if (have_posts()) : while (have_posts()) : the_post();
        echo('<a href="');
        the_permalink();
        echo('">');
        the_title();
        echo('</a>');
        endwhile; endif;
        echo('</ul>');
        echo "</li></ul></li>";

// start of a place that can be repeated for each category,
// just replace 35 and 28 below
// i.e., if we are in category id 35, then show
// a linked list of posts from category 28

} elseif (in_category(35)) {
        echo "<li id='recent'><ul class='recent'><li>";
        echo('<ul>');
        query_posts('cat=28');
        if (have_posts()) : while (have_posts()) : the_post();
        echo('<a href="');
        the_permalink();
        echo('">');
        the_title();
        echo('</a>');
        endwhile; endif;
        echo('</ul>');
        echo "</li></ul></li>";

// end of the repeating part

// below is the end - which is helpful to see if problems arise
// you can change the text between quotation marks to anything
// you want - including php or html
// if you want to show nothing, you can change it to: echo "";
// or delete the line entirely

} else {
        // catch-all for everything else (searches, 404s, etc)
        echo "<p>Pedro offers you his protection.</p>";
}
?>