Hi Bernie,
Did you rerun the 10.4.8
combined update or the delta version (incremental)? It ought to be the former, not the latter. Sometimes, rerunning the update writes over certain system files bringing relief to system-wide problems.
One suggestion - go to your Console (Utility folder), click on Console in the upper left to reveal a left side list. Click on System log and look specifically at the the time/function sequence after you checked your e-mail to the time you tried to open Safari. Copy/paste that portion of the log to your reply.