take one's breath away

They don’t take one’s breath away — although the sparkling East Colonnade, with its trees sprouting from snow banks, each branch glinting with tiny mirrored disks, is a magical and elegant welcome.

The air at 4500 meters is so thin that just a few steps take one’s breath away.

“What can you expect, when you take one’s breath away, creeping in like a burglar, and letting cats out of bags like that? Get up, you ridiculous boy, and tell me all about it.”

So we step into season 3 — one hard fought for by a social media campaign, don’t forget — with the understanding that amidst the laughter are hidden a few moments destined to shock and take one’s breath away.

Mr. Will, why not recognize a person who composes in the tradition of Woody Guthrie, with strong influences of symbolist poets, who says what no one else is able to or does say, whose lyrics can take one’s breath away and yet who remains one of the last people to take himself too seriously?