Blog Master G

In case some of you don’t recall, back in the dot-com days of the late 1990s, there was a man from Turkey named Mahir. If you don’t remember, just Google Mahir and you’ll see hundreds of versions of his famous Welcome to my home page ! Kiss you !!!!!!!!!!!! personal Web site that turned him into the world’s first Internet celebrity. And gave many of us lots and lots of laughs as links to the original site and variations of it circulated the early Internet.

Some of us actually had the great fortune of meeting Mahir in person when he toured San Francisco on Wednesday, December 15, 1999 (Wired News: Mahir, Live and in the Flesh). Included here is my photo of Mahir playing his staple sport, ping-pong. Unfortunately, I was too shy at the time to pose in a photo with him. But these really are actual photos of Mahir himself taken by yours truly that memorable night and scanned just this morning for your viewing pleasure (thanks to Jen for digging through our physical photo archives to find these treasures!).

I also have an autographed Mahir t-shirt that I think I will wear tonight when I see Borat in honor of the man who probably inspired it all (thanks, Alex, for the fantastic suggestion!).

Tonight and in the weeks to come as we all head to the theaters to cheer for Borat, think of Mahir. And think of the lawsuit he’s bringing against Sascha Baron Cohen for likeness of character (Wired News: Mahir to Borat: I Sue You!). Don’t for a second think that Mahir has forgotten his glory days. He remembers the San Francisco Etour.com/Evite party as well as I do:

Borat travels the US, examining American culture. Any memories from your visit in 1999?
I can’t forget party about me in San Francisco. Many people kissed me, took my signature, and took picture. America mix culture and big country, but people don’t think about other people. They love their own life only and fun-sex-game-drink.

Boing Boing: Borat = Mahir 2.0, but ees niiiice.