Have you heard the one about the agoraphobic who collected restaurant menus

Sounds like the set-up line for a joke, right? It's not. According to this Atlantic blog post, the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History recently added to its archives a collection of 4,500 menus from restaurants around the world, collected over four decades by one Virginia Mericle of Washington, DC.:

Mericle was a life-long collector. As a star-struck 16 year old, she would write to movie studios and request photographs of actors. Bing Crosby, John Wayne, and Dean Martin were a few of her favorite stars. She received many replies; some of the pictures were even signed by the stars themselves.

After marrying and having children, Mericle developed agoraphobia and gradually stopped venturing outside her home. Yet she remained very connected to the outside world -- through the mail.

...Interestingly, Mericle seems to have taken little interest in the actual menus, and merely sorted them into American and international piles. Furthermore, the influx of menus had no impact on the family's culinary habits. It is quite possible that Mericle simply wanted to feel connected to the outside world, and accomplished this goal through mail correspondence. Perhaps her experience with the movie studios taught her to select institutions that would readily respond to impersonal mail solicitations.

The Willows, in Honolulu. Timmy Chan's in Houston. The Luau Hut of Silver Spring, MD. Apparently, if you bring a little yearning purpose and vision to it, your hoard can end up being thought of as a collection. Go forth, agoraphobics, and bring into being exquisite collections of yellowing documents! Just remember menus have already been done.