>>There's a pattern there, but as you said, it's a pattern designed by the NYT, not by some grammar deity in the sky.
Actually The Gramaticist Deity decrees capitalization for nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs in titles, but not (coordinating) conjunctions, articles or prepositions.
(Blame Dragan for bringing out the pedant in people around him! For his viewing pleasure I included some capitalization above plus an Oxford {or serial or Harvard} comma.)
"... They ne'er cared for us
yet: suffer us to famish, and their store-houses
crammed with grain; make edicts for usury, to
support usurers; repeal daily any wholesome act
established against the rich, and provide more
piercing statutes daily, to chain up and restrain
the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and
there's all the love they bear us."
-- Shakespeare: Coriolanus, Act 1, scene 1