If you hold your mouse over to the right along the last two columns the 'tool tip' popups are very small. As soon as I start to scroll the page with the wheel mouse the tool tips disappear.
You could also hover the mouse pointer over the thread link and wait for the popup to appear, then when you click, it will not be on covering the story.
YOu have to time it just perfectly for that popup to be on the thread page so I'd suggest modifying that. it took me about 30 tries to see what you meant before that popup would actually be on the thread page.