By 2001, many of us at the University of Birmingham had become avid followers of The Onion, the weekly satirical US on-line "newspaper". As we all tried to take in the tragedy of 11 September, we wondered if The Onion would make any reference to what had happened. Indeed, we wondered if it would appear again: a week after the attacks, there was no edition. But on 26 September, there was. Indeed, almost the entire newspaper was devoted to a darkly humourous treatment of 9-11. To do it credit, the full issue should be read --- for example, "U.S. Vows To Defeat Whoever It Is We're At War With" is a spot-on forecast ofwhat would happen as the Bush Administration moved from Afghanistan to Iraq --- but here is one of the "reports"that helped us grieve and think through what had happened. And it also made us smile.