The curious case of the disappearing Polish S (2015)
Points and comments are a snapshot, not live.
Polish letter 'ś' was hard to type because Ctrl+S (save) blocked it.
The article expands from a keyboard shortcut problem: the Polish letter 'ś' (typed with Alt+S or Ctrl+Alt+S) was accidentally blocked by applications that hijack Ctrl+S for saving. It traces Polish orthography, the adoption of the Latin alphabet via Czech influence, Jan Hus's codification, 16th-century alphabet proposals by Zaborowski and Kochanowski, 19th-century Russian attempts to impose Cyrillic, and the 1936 reform. The post also notes cultural ties, partitions, and modern English loanwords like 'hejter'.
What commenters are saying
Commenters mostly discussed cultural and culinary alignments. Two camps: those arguing Polish cuisine is closer to German (sausages, beer, potatoes), and those saying it is closer to Ukrainian/Russian (pierogi, pickled everything, sour rye). Others noted that Prussia's partitions influenced Western Poland, while resettlement after WW2 from Eastern Poland moved Eastern culinary traditions westward. One commenter provided a detailed history of Polish language and alphabet adoption, emphasizing Catholic alignment with the West. Another observed that Ukraine might switch to Latin script after the war.