If you're single and living in Austin, Texas, chances are you've had sex with at least one musician, or, if you were really desperate, a roadie. It’s hard to throw a stone in the “live-music capital of the world” without hitting an aspiring rock star. The sexual subculture of that particular scene in that particular city is, at least in part, why Austin was recently declared America’s "best city for dating" (and, presumably, fornicating). But how are the sexual mores of Austin different than, say, those in Taylor, Mississippi (population two hundred), where, if you're a single twenty-something female, "your only competition is a twenty-seven-year-old waitress named Sascha?"
   For this issue, Nerve asked several of our favorite writers to provide literary snapshots from various cities, states and countries. The resulting portrayals of sexually charged interactions are as distinct in subtext as they are in style. Steven Rinella gives a new meaning to the term "date night" when he, his girlfriend and a few dozen roughnecks spend an evening at a honky-tonk in Thermopolis, Wyoming. Everything Rev. Jen Miller needs to know about the sexual proclivities of her Ocean City, Maryland, brethren she learned at 7-Eleven, while Stephen Elliott gets a pretty good lesson in lesbian love from a disaffected, motorcycle jacket wearing Amazon in a San Francisco restroom.
   Also in this issue: Lisa Carver writes about the good life you never knew existed in Columbus, Ohio; Daniel Maurer relays his foray into the Buenos Aires swinging scene; Mara Hvistendahl goes clubbing in an unlikely GLBT Mecca: Reynosa, Mexico. And a Nerve special issue wouldn’t be complete without another luckless tale from Neal Pollack, this time reporting from Guatemala.
   Some of these essays will inspire road trips and plane tickets, others may make you never want to leave home — or, if you have one, your lover — again. Either way, we hope you enjoy. — Tobin Levy