This, from an article about catching rides on friends’ private jets in the NYT Sunday Styles section:

In fact, [socialite Marjorie Gubelmann] Raein added, more often it is just a matter of friendly convenience. “It’s not like you’re some moocher,” she said. “You’re going somewhere and someone happens to have a plane.”

Green that formulation is not, and yet it does possess a kind of poetry for its beneficiaries.

The important paragraph there is the second one. Congratulations if you, like me, recognized it as an allusion to one of Federico Garcia Lorca’s more famous poems, “Romance Sonambulo.” I mean, it’s so subtle it could be accidental except that it’s so clever.

People who don’t read The New York Times think it’s stodgy and elitist. It’s actually quite playful, and while I wouldn’t rule out elitist it seems to me like a bunch of writers who’ve learned to have fun with what they do without worrying that every reader will catch every little thing. As for the readers, they catch a reference here and there and feel clever about it like they’re in on some smart-people joke. I get paranoid thinking about how much I probably miss.