Playboy September 2005

COVER STORY Jessica Canseco, the gorgeous ex-wife of the controversial one-time MVP, finally breaks her silence about her five years as a baseball wife, coming clean about sex, lies and Jose's destructive steroid abuse. Senior Contributing Photographer Stephen Wayda scores big as the taut beauty pirouettes sans tutu. Our Rabbit watches closely from the waistline. FEATURES 70 THE MAN IN THE BOMB SUIT Iraq has become a repository for just about every weapons system known to man. The situation is literally explosive, with an estimated 10 million mines buried in the dirt, often in populated areas. We patrol Baghdad with ace bomb tech Staff Sergeant Jeffrey S. Sarver of the Army's 788th Ordnance Company, an elite unit that protects troops from improvised explosive devices. Sarver's distinction: He has disarmed more of them than any man in the war. By Mark Boal 88 SPORT STARS The roadster is the ultimate sports car, and those designed in the 1950s and 1960s reached a pinnacle of style and performance that has yet to be matched. Get reverent about the five finest two-seaters ever built. By Ken Gross 94 MANY HAPPY RETURNS In a 50-year career spent studying financial markets, Wall Street vet Raymond F. Devoe Jr. has survived 18 bubbles. The man knows money, and he has sound advice on how to plan your financial future. By Raymond F. Devoe Jr.. 112 PLAYBOY'S 2005 COLLEGE PIGSKIN PREVIEW Get blitzed with our picks for the top 25 college football teams and the Playboy All America Team, as well as our 2005 Anson Mount Scholar/Athlete winner and an interview with USC coach Pete Carroll on the state of the game. By Gary Cole FICTION 84 THE FISHERMAN AND THE JINN The monotonous daily routine of an old fisherman is broken when he discovers a brass jar with a jinn inside. Should he wish for the end of disease? World peace? Or how about virility for 200 years? His wish is the jinn's command...if he can make up his mind in time. By Robert Coover THE PLAYBOY FORUM 51 BACK TO THE 1930s? To ride the bus with underclass America is to be transported to the Depression era, when there was no unemployment insurance or welfare government. Politicians today may be shocked by the backlash to their attempts to privatize Social Security, but that's because they go first-class and not Greyhound. By Ishmael Reed 20Q 126 KURT BUSCH This young NASCAR champion has left other drivers in the dust with his skillful handling and unapologetically aggressive behavior on and off the track. We get his wheels spinning about Dale Earnhardt flipping him the bird, the perks of being a champ and why he wears all those caps. By Warren Kalbacker INTERVIEW 59 THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN A three-time Pulitzer Prize winner, this New York Times columnist and bestselling author has established himself as the leading popular commentator on globalization. His latest book, The World Is Flat, describes the technological revolution that has leveled the playing field for India and China to compete with the West. He chats candidly about the war in Iraq, the future of the Middle East and why two countries that are involved in Dell's supply chain will never wage war with each other. By David Sheff PICTORIALS 76 SWEDISH BLONDES Join the joyride with these Scan- dinavian sweethearts as they show how Stockholm stacks up. 98 PLAYMATE: VANESSA HOELSHER Take a trip to wine country with this sun-ripened Georgia peach, easily the sexiest oenophile on the planet. 130 THE SLUGGER'S WIFE Jessica Canseco busts out of ex-husband Jose's shadow—and her clothes—to give us a major league flash dance. NOTES AND NEWS 13 THE WORLD OF PLAYBOY Hef is named one of the 100 Greatest Americans; the E! reality series The Girls Next Door tails his three girlfriends. 14 HANGIN' WITH HEF Tiffany Fallon, Bai Ling, screen legend Jane Russell and the Entourage guys help keep the party going at the Mansion. 159 PLAYMATE NEWS Don't wreck your neck as you crane your head out the car win- dow to take in Lauren Michelle Hill's sexy new Guess billboard; Erika Eleniak stars as one of the two Ginger temptations on The Real Gilligan Island 2. DEPARTMENTS 5 PLAYBILL 17 DEAR PLAYBOY 21 AFTER HOURS 41 MANTRACK 47 THE PLAYBOY ADVISOR 110 PARTY JOKES 147 WHERE AND HOW TO BUY 163 ON THE SCENE 164 GRAPEVINE 166 POTPOURRI FASHION 118 THE NEW PLAYBOY What does the 21st century man look like? We asked eight top designers to construct the varied looks of the modern male—a guy who wants clothes to complement rather than define his sense of individuality. By Joseph de Acetis REVIEWS 31 MOVIES David Cronenberg shakes up a rural town in his disturbing A History of Violence; George Clooney is a CIA terrorist hunter in Syriana. 32 DVDS Go under the knife with Nip/Tuck; attack the wack with essential blaxploitation classics. 34 MUSIC Head Diplomat Jim Jones drops hard lyrics on his second LP; Daddy Yankee discusses the music genre reggaetOn. 36 GAMES Gunslingers grapple with vampires in the supernatural Western Darkwatch; get mean and green with The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction. 38 BOOKS Bret Easton Ellis's long-awaited Lunar Park; the hallucinatory, erotic images of Cheyco Leidmann's Sex Is Blue.