N exactly P, but on mirrors, moving pictures and lack of mediation

[Mark Kohut]

I have had reason to read into Sidney Poiter's autobigraphy. 
He grew up early in the 20th Century, on Cat Island in the Bahamas,
which was "decidly pre-industrial", he writes. 

His father was a tomato father.

"I told [someone] that I had no recollection of having seen myself in a 
mirror at that time [youth]. I couldn't remember having ever seen a looking
glass anywhere on the island or any other kind of glass anywhere on the island
(except maybe rum bottles). 

Sidney is still young: "As the people around you talk, yoiu begin to recognize things that
are carried on the voice. Words and behavior begin to spell out something to you. All
those subtleties are what's going on with you, and that's ALL that's going on with you, day in and day out."

It is 1950 now and Poiter's parents are watching the first movie Sidney was in. 
No Way Out, with Richard Widmark pistol-whipping Sidney's character and his
mother "jumps up in the theater and yealls, "Hit him back, Sidney! Hit him back! You never did 
nothing to him!"