Simile of the year

Residents of a West 57th Street building threatened by a hurricane-damaged crane describe the noise of the crane snapping apart: "'If you know the opera Salome,' said Naomi Graffman, who has lived in the Osborne since 1962, 'the way the double basses play as they’re starting to cut off John the Baptist’s head — it sounded like that.'" For good measure, there are also references to The Shining. (Via Raphael Mostel.)