Having spent a couple of hours flicking between the two sets of results in your latest zip, I am at a loss to explain or reproduce the problem. I doesn't make any sense at all to me why

my @line_arr = split ',', $line;
[download]

would take 8 times longer in one run relative to another. Assuming the same interpreter is being used for both runs.

As I cannot reproduce it, and nobody else has spoken up to say that they can, it would appear to be confined to your system. If you have a work around, and are not concerned that this will adversely affect your other programs, then simply drop the issue.

Quite frankly, I find this NYT prof output very difficult to use. Pretty, but otherwise essentially useless. But, once again, I seem to be in a minority here.