Mail 6.1 locks up, other problem

Question

After updating to 10.8.2, my Mail application locks up after clicking on the reply arrow within an existing email in a thread.  It happened twice, I used Force Quit and reopened, then repaired permissions in Disk Utility, tried again, it locked up again, simply quit the application and restarted.  But it keeps locking up.
While I can move the cursor around and switch to another application, I cannot access anything in the existing  email thread window.  However, I can look at other emails from the main window.  Very weird.
To be even more descriptive, I can open an individual email and respond to that.  But when I try to respond to an email that is in the right sidebar as part of a thread, that's where it locks up.  Problem is repeatable every time I try it.
I have a 21.5 inch iMac, mid-2010 with 4 GB memory, 3.6 Ghz Core i5.  No plugins or software that interacts with Mail.  Never had a real software problem after upgrades (yep, lucky!), Mac user since 1986.  Have not contacted Applecare since I can work around this problem for a while, and don't want to load up the system during what could be a heavy period for support.
Steve
p.s. -- while minor, I have another problem with jpeg attachments.  There is an option to add photos to iPhoto from a Mail message, but it no longer works after upgrading to 10.8.2.  I have to download all photos into the Downloads folder, open iPhoto and drag files into that application.  I regularly use the short cut directly from Mail, and noticed this right away.  I have iPhoto 9.4.

Answer 1

Are you using multiple accounts?  If so then I may have the solution.
My accounts were set up within mail preferences on 10.8.1.  When I upgraded to 10.8.2 Mail froze, nothing I did would unfreeze it.  So after I return my new MacBook and got a new one the same thing happened again! 
Here is what I did this time:
1)     Create a new user profile
2)     Put in your main iCloud log in
3)     Do not add your other iCloud adresses using Mail instead go to System Preferences and Mail, Contacts, Calendars and add them there
Please note this will not work on your existing log in as when you go to System Preferences your old email accounts will cause it to crash as well as mail.
What might have been easier is if Apple had got mail to come up with a message like 'iCloud accounts should be added through system preferences' instead of crashing every time.  Of course it does make you wonder why mail even has a preferences with an option to add accounts?!
Hope this helps.