does anyone notice that in the 4.1 software, certain menus scroll MUCH slower than in 4.0? (i.e. text message inbox, calendar?). Is there a way to get that back to the older ways?

If by "older ways" you mean the older OS, yes you can (at least for Nextel). Go to the OS software download page for your provider, and see if the downlevel one is there. For Nextel, they have the latest OS, and 2 previous versions.

Wirelessly posted (Cingular 7130c: BlackBerry7130/4.1.0 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/102)

You can also hold the ALT key and scroll to scroll by page instead of by line.