Can't I save photo attachments I get in email?

When you click on the attachment, a menu should pop up asking to open or save to the SD card. Save to the SD card, and then you should be able to access it through Astro File Manager or by connecting your phone with your USB cord. It should also be accessible in your photos under downloads, I think.

Hope that helps! 

i spent an hour on the phone with verizon today, Wallis was the lady's name,
and she tried all types of tricks, but none worked.  my purpose was to save it to the phone so i could look at it later without having to go on-line.

she said i must have received a bad phone, and i'll have to return it to verizon and be given a new phone, or a master reset on this eris and losing all my data.

anyway, googled the question, and found the answer here:

i just wanted to save it, don't care if it's on the sd card or not.  but mine didn't give me an option for sd card.  

yes!