Why are you afraid of cookies? The cookie monster, maybe. But cookies, no!
I use Firefox. In Firefox it's easy to "clear history when Firefox closes". That includes cookies.
So all you do to be as close to anonymous as possible is:
1) set FF to clear cookies on close (this is my default)
2) close FF
3) open FF, go to nytimes.com
4) when done reading, close FF
That's it. All my cookies get deleted before and after I use the web site. I fail to see any harm in allowing the Times to set as many cookies as they want to for the duration of my browsing session with them. I even allow third party cookies. I don't care, they're all gone as soon as I exit my browser. BTW to combat sleazier sites I also use the Better Privacy addon. That can easily be set to clear out Flash cookies every time the browser exits.
One other thing. Use NoScript. Don't whitelist NY Times. Then you will never be bothered in the slightest by their paywall; it relies on JS.
I use Firefox. In Firefox it's easy to "clear history when Firefox closes". That includes cookies.
So all you do to be as close to anonymous as possible is: 1) set FF to clear cookies on close (this is my default) 2) close FF 3) open FF, go to nytimes.com 4) when done reading, close FF
That's it. All my cookies get deleted before and after I use the web site. I fail to see any harm in allowing the Times to set as many cookies as they want to for the duration of my browsing session with them. I even allow third party cookies. I don't care, they're all gone as soon as I exit my browser. BTW to combat sleazier sites I also use the Better Privacy addon. That can easily be set to clear out Flash cookies every time the browser exits.
One other thing. Use NoScript. Don't whitelist NY Times. Then you will never be bothered in the slightest by their paywall; it relies on JS.