Here's a possible clue. When I manage to get the help screen to display without garbage while TERM=xterm-mono, I get this:
quit, exit, overwrite (note capitals!): return confirm, quit (check dependencies) q confirm, quit (override dep.s) x, esc exit, abandoning any changes made r revert to state before this list u set all to suggested state d set all to directly requested state Notice that the "capitals" are lower case! In color mode, the letters are capitalized properly: Quit, exit, overwrite (note capitals!): Return Confirm, quit (check dependencies) Q Confirm, quit (override dep.s) X, Esc eXit, abandoning any changes made R Revert to state before this list U set all to sUggested state D set all to Directly requested state That's really bizarre. AMC

