This seems like as good a place as any to post the PSA that even on the current version of nano, ^s does a silent save to the current file (as opposed to the "Write Out" ^w which is like a Save As...) Why on earth this one doesn't merit inclusion in the command bar is beyond me.
Probably because some terminals interpret Ctrl+S as a "pause the terminal" command and if you don't know about it, it looks like your editor has frozen.
