Today I went out for lunch by myself and promptly got lost in the blacktop jungle of Gaithersburg. Okay, maybe it wasn't really all that, but I have to say it was a pretty weird experience.

After awhile, I pulled into a Burger King to get something to eat. Due to traffic restrictions you couldn't enter the drive through from the same entrance you used to get into the restaurant, you had to turn in from an entirely different street....

By the grace of God, I do have some functioning brain cells, so I was able to figure it out and get pointed in the correct direction. There was a line of traffic, so I passed time by looking around and trying to generally orient myself.

I looked out the right passenger window and saw a sign at eye level that said: "You're Flame Broiling." Then there was an arrow "Enter Here"

Oh, great, now I've really made the wrong turn and I'm going to hell!

I AM hip enough to be aware that "flame broiling" is the claim to fame of Burger King, and I guess the sign was meant to reassure people that they had come into the right line and weren't in que for, say, the bank.

But I still found it a little disconcerting, especially since I have Anne Rice's controversail new book Christ The King tucked into my handbag.

Then again, those nasty french fries they serve there ARE a kind of hell, and they didn't even offer the option of onion rings.

At least I found my way back to the office in time.