From Zdnet

The North Denver News reports
that Thomas Martel, 28, of Bonnie Brae, Colorado recently underwent
“whittling” thumb surgery to better enable him to use the
iPhone.

Thomas Martel, 28, of Bonnie Brae is a big guy. So he has a hard
time using the features on ever-shrinking user interfaces on devices
like his new iPhone. At least, he did, until he had his thumbs
surgically altered in a revolutionary new surgical technique known as
“whittling.”

“From my old Treo, to my Blackberry, to this new iPhone, I had
a hard time hitting the right buttons, and I always lost those little
styluses,” Martel tells reporter James Bently. “Sure, the
procedure was expensive, but when I think of all the time I save by
being able to use modern handhelds so much faster, I really think the
surgery will pay for itself in ten to fifteen years. And what
it’s saving me in frustration - that’s priceless.”

Well OK, Tom.

“This is really, on the edge sort of stuff,” explains
Dr. Robert Fox Spars, who worked on developing the procedure.
“We’re turning plastic surgery from something that people
use in service of vanity, to a real tool for improving workplace
efficiency.”

As Bently describes it, “the procedure involved making a small
incision into both thumbs and shaving down the bones, followed by
careful muscular alteration and modification of the fingernails.