Okay, I've posted a bug about this at
<http://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=11270>, with a patch
implementing Brion's basic idea a little more robustly. I view it as
nearly ready for deployment, after more extensive browser testing and
a few bug fixes. If someone could install it on their public wiki for
comment (maybe test-wiki?), that would be great.
For those who are newcomers to the discussion, this is a somewhat more
refined variant on
<http://test.leuksman.com/view/Venus_Williams#2003>, which seems to be
largely broken, but a screenshot is available at
<http://i17.tinypic.com/68jnvo4.jpg>. For "why do we want this" and
other general discussion, see the history of this thread beginning at
<http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikitech-l/2007-June/031899.html>.