Some sex is news, some news is sex. The two categories are as separate as private and public, which is to say, not very. Sex continually laps over into the pool of the notable, creating awkward ripples and splashy little shudders and complaints about adulteration. Lately, reading the daily paper may remind one of Aldous Huxley's characterization of the rhythm of life itself: "routine punctuated by orgies."

Of course, when sex and news get really confused — as they did two years ago, when each presidential press conference took on the savor of an awkward sex-ed class — the public freaks out with a very peanut-butter-in-my-chocolate intensity. This year was calmer, but it has had its own tweaks and shivers, its mood swings between greedy titillation and too much information.

Why fight it? Let two become one. Here, in no particular order, the Nerve 100. — Emily Nussbaum with Maggie Cutler, Lorelei Sharkey, Jeremy Simon and Emma Taylor.

with sidebars by Bob Morris, Jack Murnighan, Maggie Cutler, Dan Reines, Mark Bibbins, Jeremy Countryman, Ross Martin, Donna Minkowitz Louis Bayard and David Berreby

1. Y2K hysteria enables revelers to seduce one another under the classic "world is coming to an end" scenario.

2. Sports Illustrated cover strumpet Anna Kournikova becomes everything a man ever wanted in a women's tennis player, without all that distracting tennis.

3. The ILOVEYOU virus floods computers, disappointing corporate romantics as they open their morning email.

4. "Sometimes it's like, 'Listen, sweetheart, you don't have to reinvent sex to please me, and the majority of that stuff you're doing just hurts, so back the fuck off.'" (Charlie Sheen, on sex with porn stars.)

5. Oprah's new magazine, O, faces lawsuit from German latex fetish magazine of the same name.

6. Beaver College votes to change its name.

7. The nearby Pennsylvania town of Intercourse keeps its name.

8. Hilary Swank wins Best Actress for her role in the dark horse genderfuck tragedy Boys Don't Cry.

9. AOL penetrates Time Warner.