Intermittently, a minor speedup

Yes, the server soon returned to its normal speed later in the day. Maybe the brief speed up was just a coincidence.

Identify ... nodelets that you consider 'broken'

As I wrote: Weekly Best. I said at least because I suspected that other nodelets might be down as well.

"As I wrote: Weekly Best."

Yes, you wrote those words, but not in a context that supports any reasonable inference that you regard 'Weekly Best' as one of your 'broken Nodelets.' <update class="I was wrong"> And I'm not aware of any configuration that would allow you to "turn off" a node, except to the extent that your user config allows you to opt out of seeing certain classes of posts in Newest Nodes ... say the poetry nodes.

In fact, 'Weekly Best' is not a nodelet; it's a node, part of Best Nodes, unless you were referring to something other than what appears below the title "Best Nodes of The Week." </update>

And, BTW, "intermittently" means something close to "sometimes, but not always, and unpredictably at that;" not "briefly" as seems to be your understanding (based on the first part of your reply.

There is a Weekly Best nodelet. See Nodelet Settings.