This past summer as I was lounging around my friend's pool during one of many heat waves, she remarked, "It's so hot, I bet my sister Liz is having one of her naked barbecues."

I was watching Woody Allen's Annie Hall the other day and had a good laugh at the scene where Allen, talking to his psychiatrist, says that he and girlfriend Annie hardly ever have sex.

Oh boy. You're pretty sure tonight's the night you're going make sweet love, and you're psyched. It's the first time with your new flame, so you want to impress.

Western culture is obsessed with two subjects: sex and celebrities. When those two subjects merge everyone wants to know the juice, no matter how high-minded they pretend to be.

Sex should be liberating and exhilarating, the one time in our day when worries melt away and we focus, completely if briefly, on feeling good.

Sexual pleasure has come a long way since the times when the mere thought of any position but the missionary sent us running to the confessionals.

Afternoon poolside naps. Au naturel sunbathing. Romantic evenings. Quiet mornings. (Actually, make that quiet everything)

It's hard to flip through an issue of In Touch or People magazine without being inundated with gossip about the latest celebrity tuck, plump, stretch or augmentation by plastic surgery.

Spontaneous sex sessions not only satisfy spur-of-the-moment urges, they boost your libido, improve the health of your relationship and offer the opportunity to explore fantasies you might be too shy to explore.

Homophobes worry that anal sex will make them gay. Froufrou females assume it's just a painful form of male domination. Mysophobes believe that going in through the out door is messy.

A 1997 study by the University of California, San Francisco tells us that about 13.9 million American adults use sex toys.

It's a beautiful thing but sometimes sex can be dangerous, embarrassing and even painful.

Erotica is a type of literature that is written in order to arouse the reader. It's not smut and it's not pornography.

Although you're likely a pro at navigating your way around the more visited erogenous zones -- like the breasts, penis, butt, and clitoris -- there are a number of body parts that don't get the attention they deserve.

Ah, the Internet. Back when it was a new-fangled device, I would send the handful of my friends who had computers an e-mail and then phone them to see if they got it.

Upon hearing the word fetish, some people might leap to conclusions that they are disgusting or untamed vices.

Getting off on images of other people having sex is nothing new. The bathhouses of the ancient Greeks and Romans were filled with frescoes of nudes in compromising positions.

In the quest for climax, some days you get there, and other days... not so much. What's a girl or guy to do?

How far will we go in the quest for the perfect body? From anal bleaching to foreskin restoration, our growing obsession with cosmetic surgery has just conquered new, more intimate territories.

If you ask a single person what they're looking for in a partner, chances are that somewhere on their wish list would be a mention of their performance in the sack.

Michael Alvear watches complete strangers having sex in their bedrooms every week. Neighborhood pervert?