Like a... like a... like a...

Going back through my work I notice a hell of a lot of analogies. The layout of the room, the weather, facial expressions or behaviour all seem to include an analogy in some shape or another.  This gets me thinking - are analogies a help or a hindrance to creative writing?

Do they really help set the scene or just block some of the reader´s imaginative flow?

Take the following example.

Scene : An old woman and a young boy are sharing a train compartment.

He turned on his mp3 player, the music blaring in the silent compartment. She looked  across at him, her face screwed up like a piece of old newspaper. ¨Would you keep it down!¨.

OR

He turned on his mp3 player, the music blaring in the silent compartment. She looked across at him. ¨Would you keep it down!¨

For me, the little newspaper addition gives me quite a nice visual, however I could probably imagine it without the analogy included.

Anyway, I am looking forward to your ideas. See if you can guess the following analogies. Feel free to post your own!