CARL Pensyl, swizzle stick collector, has been writing to the Mandarin Oriental, the Godown restaurant and other Hongkong eateries and drinkeries asking for swizzle sticks.
As our favourite tipple usually comes equipped only with foam, it fell to the Godown's Claudia McGregor to tell us that a swizzle stick was the plastic doodah which carries a restaurant logo and which comes with a mixed drink.
We had always thought this was provided so you could clean wax out of your ears, and apologise unreservedly to the many fellow drinkers we must have startled over the years.
Mr Pensyl stores his no doubt remarkable collection in his home at 910 Washington Street, Reading, PA, 19601 USA, and says in his covering letter that he is retired and this is his only hobby.
Ms McGregor brushed aside the suggestion that perhaps Mr Pensyl was trying to set up a restaurant on the cheap, and posted a few off.
Another truly strange collector we have come across recently is an English teenager who collects air from famous places in firmly-stoppered glass bottles.