They make good unreflected mirrors, yes - a couple of the beerfest pictures were actually taken for that sort of reason too.

The reflection wasn't the real problem; I'm perfectly capable of reading reflected text without difficulty. But with a mirror, the text would have effectively been a couple of metres away from me and poorly lit, which would have made it hard to read even if it hadn't been reflected. The real advantages of the camera here were that it provided its own light and could be placed very close to its subject.

(Also that I didn't have a suitable mirror or a stick to mount it on, of course.)

That's starting to sound like the sort of thing that would happen if stuck on a desert island or some such. I could make a fire....if only I had X, which I don't have...