Open Recent Menu failure

Question

There was one reference to my problem in the past but an explanation for how to repair or correct the problem was not included in the posting. As well, I've read back a few hundred discussion items and have not been able to find any other references to this problem. I'll understand if it is uncommon.
For some time now I've been unable to see a list of items in my "Open Recent" menu item. The grey "Clear Menu" item appears but none of the recent items I was working on ever appear in the list. I can't remember when I first saw this but I haven't acted on it until today.
I'm using Pages 3.01 on a MacBook Pro and I usually run Parallels at the same time. But I have this problem whether I'm running other software or not.
Now I do rely on CopyPaste to be running when I startup and I have Default Folder set to load on startup because I rely on these so much during my writing. But they are separate applications and don't patch the system, really. So I don't suspect either of these being a culprit.
I've trashed preferences found in the user library without solving the problem.
I'm not a power use of my MacBook Pro so I don't know much about where to see more. Anyone who might be able to either identify my problem and point me to a solution or examine my problem with me and help me diagnose it for other readers would be able to reply to this.
I'm still in 10.4.11 so it's not a Leopard thing yet. Everything else I do on this Mac is pretty normal (except for a flakey copy and paste with Photoshop Elements).
Why this would have worked some time ago and fail in recent months is part of the mystery as well. And for those who might suggest I send in a comment to Apple -- I already have (with little hope for their response).
If I'm the only person having this problem I'll accept the silence.
Cheers

Answer 1

I have to give special thanks for this to the MacFixit "Be Your Own Mac Troubleshooting Guru" and especially pages 26 and 27.
Essentially the guide states you can drag your User Library folder to the desktop and disable everything at once. Then log out and log back in.
Then launch Pages and find the Recent Menu is working fine.
Then you put back folder after folder until it breaks. I went through all of them and came down to the last two (Application Support and Preferences) with no problem. I then put the Support folder in and expected it to fail - but it did not. So after one more log out and log in I was down to going through all the Preferences files and folders.
Most of them were easy but there were a few which already existed and I did not replace those (about 16 files). None of the ones I left out had anything to do with iWork or Pages (and that's what people were suggesting here).
So, now I have a fully working system with no real changes to the way I had it before. Now there was ONE thing which did not work the way it did before. My two finger hold and click usually brought up the contextual menu (a right click substitute) and this didn't work any more.
I went to System Preferences and turned it back on (Keyboard and Mouse) and things are still working fine with Pages. So, I think I'll say the problem is solved and thank everyone for their support through this process.
The making of a new user was the clue and the use of MacFixit's diagnostic steps helped me work this out over about 2 hours. I know many of you might wonder why I didn't just move everything over to a new user - but those who know will understand the process I used was pretty much the same. Any problem I had in the Preferences folder of the Library would have copied across and I would not have been the wiser.
For Yvan: Yes, I'm waiting with Leopard. I have a couple of utilities which I need in my work and they haven't released Leopard updates yet. When those are in the bag I'll be going up to Leopard.
Thanks everyone. Now I have a process I can use for future problems if I have them in some other area.
Cheers.