Paste is grayed out in Illustrator's Edit menu

Hi,
Let me put it simply :

I start a new document. I draw a rectangle.

Edit < Copy

Edit ... oh my god ... Paste is greyed out  (so are its little cousins like paste in front, place, back ...)

Ctrl - C    Ctrl - V    : no effect  ...

It happened suddenly ...   is it a bug or am I bugging?

Thanks for any clue ...

{Renamed by MOD}