I often get a kick out of the subtle signals the Times sends that its target demographic is a Manhattanite with a family income of at least 500K a year. For example, in an article on green homes today: "The checklist for certification can be more daunting than a private-school application." Note the assumption that (a) readers are familiar with private school applications; and (b) that the private schools that people send their kids to are extremely competitive and hard to get into, which I suspect account for a very small fraction of private schools nationwide and even New York City generally, but a large fraction of schools to which upper-income Manhattanites send their children.