Maybe we burned out. Maybe it shamed us to admit that yes, Dad, those were our tits on Girls Gone Wild: Endless Summer Road Trip. Maybe we ate all the good ecstasy in the 90s. Whatever happened, our national appetite for sex scandals changed from one that enjoys freaky Hustler-worthy orgies to a nation that fears areolas. Heres our look at what shamed us and turned us on in 04:

Jan. 2: What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. But what happens in Key West, Fla., often gets broadcast over the Internet. Ohio TV news anchor Catherine Bosley discovered this after participating in a wet T-shirt contest and strip tease while vacationing with her new hubby. Amateur photographers took pics and video of her freewheeling nudie-fest and posted them on the Web, forcing a red-faced, teary-eyed Bosley to resign.

Feb. 2: Janet Jackson's nipple met the world, with a little help from Justin Timberlake, during the now-infamous Super Bowl halftime show. The original exposure ran for less than a second, but thanks to seemingly endless news replays, America can now draw the diva's sun-shaped nipple shield from memory. Subsequently, the FCC began scrutinizing MTV, CBS, Viacom and every other form of broadcast media with the zealousness of the Spanish Inquisition.

Feb. 22: Longtime S&M club the Chamber closes, and Secretroom.net's weekly erotica party moves to the Masquerade's Hell level the following week.

March 19: 96Rock's Regular Guys, Eric Von Haessler and Larry Wachs, are suspended from air after a mic is left on, allowing the broadcast of graphic sex talk from porn star Devinn Lane. Three weeks later, Clear Channel Communications fires the pair despite their show's high ratings.

May 18: Jessica Cutler, aka Washingtonienne, is fired from her job as a Capitol Hill mail clerk when her blog is posted on the D.C. gossip site Wonkette.com. Her entries detailed sexual adventures -- some involving cash -- with six different partners, including an unnamed Bush official and a senator's staff member. The blog proved a must-read with lines like: "He wants us to get tested together so we can stop using condoms. Isn't that sweet? Hope I don't have anything!"

June 13: Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen turn 18. Men with absolutely no shot at bedding either one of them rejoice.

June 22: After concluding its final season on HBO, "Sex and the City" premieres on TBS in a cleaned-up version. No full nudity, no f-word, and no nipples turn the show into "We Just Talk About Sex and the City."

July 2: Lindsay Lohan turns 18. Men with absolutely no shot of ever bedding her rejoice.

Aug. 1: Mega-famous porn star Jenna Jameson releases her autobiography How to Make Love Like a Porn Star: A Cautionary Tale. Rather than a how-to-screw guide, as the title implies, Jameson offers advice to aspiring porn starlettes and details her celebrity sex romps in explicit and often hilarious detail. She once made out with Marilyn Manson in a limo going to a party, then later discovered that she had black lipstick smeared all over her face.

Aug. 6: Rick James, the original Superfreak, dies at age 56.

Aug. 12: New Jersey Gov. James E. McGreevey outs-himself as a "Gay American" at the same time that he announces his resignation. This comes after allegations of dubious political appointments and extramarital affairs.

Aug. 14: Naked Boys Singing! opens in the Armory's Cabaret Room. The musical revue, which features naked men playing with their pianist, proceeds without incident until ... wait, we'll tell you later. In other theater news, sex rules in Atlanta throughout the fall with Actor's Express' Killer Joe (nudity), Dad's Garage's Debbie Does Dallas: The Musical (based on the porn film), Horizon Theatre's Cafe Puttenesca (singing prostitutes), and Actor's Express' Pulp (drag kings).

Sept. 10: Vincent Gallo's controversial movie The Brown Bunny opens in Atlanta, giving film buffs the chance to see Golden Globe nominated actress Chloé Sevigny actually give Gallo on-screen head.

Oct. 1: Former ballet dancer Toni Bentley releases her book The Surrender: An Erotic Memoir, a hoity-toity ode about finding God through getting butt-fucked. Seriously.

Oct. 13: Fox News Channel host Bill O'Reilly slaps associate producer Andrea Mackris with an extortion suit and she retaliates by charging him with sexual harassment. Aside from all the boring legal stuff, Mackris reveals that O'Reilly often spoke about vibrators, threesomes, and getting her all sudsy with a loofah in a Caribbean shower. But just as it looked like O'Reilly would be tagged as the kinky Mr. Bubble, the pair settled with undisclosed terms.

Nov. 1: Delta employee Ellen Simonetti was fired after posting a racy photo on her blog, "Diary of a Flight Attendant." The photo included Simonetti in her uniform with a few buttons of her shirt undone.

Nov. 15: "Desperate Housewives" star Nicollette Sheridan drops her towel for Philadelphia Eagles' Terrell Owens in an intro to ABC's "Monday Night Football." A national uproar ensues, and the NFL proves that once again it has no sense of humor.

Nov. 23: Hustler announces it will publish photos of Paris Hilton kissing a girl. After three alleged sex tapes and ever-surfacing photos, can't the girl learn the first rule of naughty photography: keep the negatives and the tapes?

Nov. 24: Kinsey, a biopic about the sex research of Alfred Kinsey, opens in Atlanta. But anyone looking to see a freak-for-all would be sadly disappointed since the film proved to be more talk than action.

Dec. 11: We told you we'd get to this. Atlanta police shut down Naked Boys Singing!, citing the Armory for staging adult entertainment without a license. But 72 hours later, Mayor Shirley Franklin requests that police drop the citation, thereby pre-emptively defending her administration against charges of cock-blocking.

heather.kuldell@creativeloafing.com