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.
