I was doing fine with that Peter Collier piece until I got to:

Others stickled particularly at his criticism of Hirsi Ali.

“Stickle”? That’s a verb? I know, of course, that one can be a stickler for something or other, but I can’t recall seeing the verb form before.

Off to Webster’s Third. Yep:

stickle vi … 3 : to contend or hold out esp. pertinaciously and usu. on finical or insufficient grounds 4 : to feel hesitation or scruples.

I shall seek the first possible opportunity at a NR editorial meeting to say: “Ooooh, that stickles!”

While I’m doing words, what happened to “rankle”? I always understood it to be intransitive: “His remark rankled for some time …” or “His remark rankled with me for some time …” Nowadays, however, I more often see it by itself: “It rankled me.” Is this correct? Back to Webster’s. Yes, they allow a transitive form, though it looks like an afterthought & may be just one of those deplorable concessions to common mis-usage. Not that it really rankles; I’m not going to stickle over it, anyway.