  Suppose that A is a set of n real numbers, each at least 1 apart. Define the
``perturbed sum and product sets'' S and P to be the sums a + b + f(a,b) and
products (a+g(a,b))(b+h(a,b)), where f, g, and h satisfy certain upper bounds
in terms of the n, |a| and |b|. We develop almost best possible lower bounds on
|P| + |S|, using the largest possible sizes of the ``perturbation parameters''
f(a,b), g(a,b) and h(a,b). Our proof uses Elekes's idea for bounding
|A+A|+|A.A| from below, in combination with the Szemeredi-Trotter curve theorem
(actually, a minor generalization of it) of Szekely, applied to certain
polygonal arcs.
