In Washington and elsewhere, the devices are referred to as ''CrackBerries'' because of their addictive quality. Philippe Reines, a 34-year-old Democrat who works on Capitol Hill (and who coined the term ''blirting,'' for BlackBerry flirting), said he went through severe withdrawal after finding that Martha's Vineyard lacked BlackBerry reception. Mr. Reines wandered around the Vineyard for days looking for spots of coverage before begging an airline employee to take his BlackBerry on a round trip to the mainland, where it could send and receive messages. He got 129 new messages, many of them social.

Speaker Alvin Curling is about to wage war against the "crackberries."

He says the use of highly popular BlackBerries, the runaway success for Waterloo's Research in Motion, has gotten out of hand, especially since electronic devices are prohibited in the Legislature.

The e-mail devices are highly addictive, hence the crackberry nickname.

DENNIS KAVELMAN: I'm not sure if you guys use Blackberry or have tried it, but it is pretty addictive.

GEOFF COLVIN: Well, it is addictive and on Wall Street they call it crackberry for exactly that reason. Once you try it you can't live without it, so they say.