so, I have tried everything I can think of, and can't get this query to happen in less than 3 seconds on my local server. I know the problem has to do with the OR referencing both the owner_id and the person_id. if I run one or the other it happens instantly, but together with an or I can't seem to make it work - I looked into rewriting the code, but the way the app was designed it won't be easy. is there a way I can call an equivalent or that won't take so long? here is the sql:

SELECT event_types.name as event_type_name,event_types.id as id, count(events.id) as 
count,sum(events.estimated_duration) as time_sum FROM events,event_types 
WHERE event_types.id = events.event_type_id AND events.event_type_id != '4' 
AND ( events.status!='cancelled') 
AND events.event_type_id != 64 
AND ( events.owner_id = 161 OR events.person_id = 161 ) 
GROUP BY event_types.name 
ORDER BY event_types.name DESC;

Here's the Explain soup, although I'm guessing it's unnecessary cause there is probably a better way to structure that or that is obvious:

thanks so much! chris.

+----+-------------+-------------+-------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+-------------------------------+---------+-------------------------------------+------+----------------------------------------------+
| id | select_type | table       | type  | possible_keys                                                                                           | key                           | key_len | ref                                 | rows | Extra                                        |
+----+-------------+-------------+-------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+-------------------------------+--
|  1 | SIMPLE      | event_types | range | PRIMARY                                                                                                 | PRIMARY                       | 4       | NULL                                |   78 | Using where; Using temporary; Using filesort |
|  1 | SIMPLE      | events      | ref   | index_events_on_status,index_events_on_event_type_id,index_events_on_person_id,index_events_on_owner_id | index_events_on_event_type_id | 5       | thenumber_production.event_types.id |  907 | Using where                                  |
+----+-------------+-------------+-------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+-------------------------------+---------+-------------------------------------+------+----------------------------------------------+