Flame-broiled burgers aren't the only things that get hot at the Burger King restaurant in Berlin's new main train station, as World News & Prophecy managing editor Darris McNeely and I found out today.

I met Darris at the Düsseldorf airport this morning, where he had arrived on a flight from the USA. We traveled to Berlin by train and spent the day visiting the Reichstag, Brandenburg Gate, Potsdam square, Checkpoint Charlie and other sites. After visiting the dome of the Reichstag in the early evening, we decided to get a burger at the station on our way back to our hotel in Spandau, where we are staying. As I ordered the meals, Darris snapped a photo of me. He also may have caught the guy behind the counter in the image (I am not sure), who immediately demanded that Darris delete the photo or else his boss would get mad, either at him or us. Then he told us it was an invasion of his privacy for him to have been photographed. I told Darris to delete the photo, and I mentioned to the guy that my friend didn't want his photo anyway, but mine. He launched into another explanation about invasion of privacy and then accused Darris of not having deleted the photo. But he added that we should not take any offense. Since he spoke an Eastern European language to the customer ahead of me, I wondered later whether he might be worried that we were working for the labor office. But that seemed a bit far-fetched. At any rate, we collected our burgers and proceeded up the stairs to the platform for our train back to Spandau. The burgers were hot as usual, matching the unusual heat we experienced from behind the counter.

Comment from J. Leslie Booth:

It would seem that more than "flame-broiled-burgers" and the corporate identity was exported to Germany with Burger King. It sounds as if a heavy dose of "in your face American style" got there, too . . . I'm inclined to believe it has nothing to do with BK burgers or corporate ID. Such could happen in any establishment, anywhere. You and Darris just got "lucky".