New York Times Grammar and Style

Listen, I love the New York Times. I read it cover to cover (or pixel to pixel) every day and have it delivered in dead-tree format to my doorstep each morning.

But so often I come across an awkward sentence which I have to read and re- read several times to understand.

I've been noticing this for a long time now and it makes me wonder whether it's a stylistic thing or a that they have had to lay off their best editors.

At any rate, I don't have the same impression when I read he Wall Street Journal (which I admire but don 't love.)

Here's a recent example:

"LAGOS, Nigeria -- In a quarter-century, at the rate Nigeria is growing, 300 million people -- a population about as big as that of the present-day United States -- will live in a country roughly the size of Arizona, New Mexico and Nevada." (from NYT)

What do you say, am I crazy?