YesBut what’s the story?

There have been a number of memorable captions posted on YesBut’s Images, one which intrigues me is that posted by Bart on 31st May:

“Perhaps if I keep looking intently, nobody will realize I accidentally glued my thumb to the inside of this book”

When I first read Bart’s caption, two questions sprang to mind:

While the young lady is prominent in the photo, her thumb isn’t the focal point. Question, what drew Bart’s attention to the thumb? Perhaps Bart will answer this.

The second question, how did she get her thumb stuck in the book? I have a theory:

Instead of going home straight from work, Tom decided to go for a couple of pints in the pub. You know how things are, one or two pints leads to three or four, or five. Well it was quite late when he staggered through the front door of his house. Fortunately for him he swayed to his right just as his wife threw the china ornament.

The problem was the ornament’s head broke off. Now that wouldn’t have been a catastrophe as neither Tom nor his wife liked the statue. But, it had been given as a wedding present by Tom’s maiden aunt Gladys. Now Tom wanted to keep Gladys happy as he hoped to inherit her money. So the next morning, after he had sobered up, Tom attempted to glue the head back on.

He used one of those supper glues which you have to mix the contents of two tubes. Tom isn’t what might be called “clever with his hands”, and managed to stick his thumb and forefinger together. He panicked and rushed to the Accident and Emergency Department at St Thomas’ Hospital. Passing the bookstall under Waterloo Bridge he saw a book “One Thousand Six Hundred And Forty-three Things You Need To Know”. At that moment Tom only needed to know one thing, how to get his finger and thumb unstuck. He flicked through the book. But unfortunately, how to get fingers unstuck wasn’t considered by the author something you needed to know. Tom put the book back on the table and went on his way. Unknowingly he had left a blob of glue on the book.

Patricia was due to meet her friends to see a film at the National Film Theatre. Arriving early she wandered around the book stalls. She didn't notice something sticky on her finger as she moved out of the way, one of those stupid things you need to know books, as she had her eyes firmly fixed on the book underneath “Zen and the Art of Trampolining for Flower Arrangers ” - she thought it would make a nice birthday present for her grandmother, who was a obsessive trampolinist. It was only when she went to pay for the book that she was horrified to discover that her thumb was stuck to the book.

Some hours later Tom was amused to see a young woman with her thumb stuck to a book walk into the waiting room of St Thomas’ A&E Department.

I wonder if Bart will leave a caption for today’s YesBut’s Images photograph? Better still why don’t you click here and leave a suggestion for a caption.