php_stream *php_stream_url_wrap_http(php_stream_wrapper *wrapper, const char *path, const char *mode, int options, zend_string **opened_path, php_stream_context ...

Any request using Guzzle instead of fopen PHP has a (cool/horrifying) feature where fopen can open HTTPS URLs (amoung other things) in addition to local files on disk. The intermimttent issues happen ...