imagery from Peggy

I love the creative imagery from yesterday's column by Peggy Noonan, writing about the flap at Harvard over Larry Summers' remarks. She conjures up a good picture of the academists:

But what the Summers story most illustrates is that American universities now seem like Medieval cloisters. They're like a cloister without the messy God part. Old monks of leftism walk their hallowed halls in hooded robes, chanting to themselves. Young nuns of leftist deconstructionism, pale as orchids, walk along wringing their hands, listening to their gloomy music. They become hysterical at the antichrist of a new idea, the instrusion of the reconsideration of settled matter. Get thee behind me, Summers.
These monks and nuns are the worst of both worlds, frightened and so ferocious, antique and so aggressive.

What a gifted writer; what a joy to read!