The New York Times just posted an article about the phrase "Cellar Door" (that is, in fact, the title of their piece). The print edition of this piece is supposed to appear in print on February 14, 2010, on page 16 of the Sunday Magazine.

The article refers to the movie "Donnie Darko", in which a character asks about the phrase "cellar door" written on a chalkboard, and another character in the movie says the words are supposed to be especially lovely, and attributes the quote to "a famous linguist". The NYT goes on to speculate that the "linguist" in question is Tolkien and goes on to discuss the phrase further.

The article is a part of the "On Language" section of the Sunday Magazine of the New York Times.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/14/magazine/14FOB-onlanguage-t.html