I read about a research study the other day that has finally determined a question we all have. How late is late? You have a good 10 minutes and 17 seconds before you should call and say you are late. Well, at least that’s according to some British researchers.

They always seem to be so darn polite over there, maybe we could get away with waiting a little longer.

I love this kind of news because I’m not always the most prompt guy in the world. I need to set my clock a little fast sometimes so I don’t get a late start.

But that always backfires because I mentally adjust the time I added whenever I glance at the clock. I don’t know why I even bother.

I may be late for meetings sometimes, but at least I use my vacation time. A study by a Web site recently showed that one-third of Americans won’t use all their vacation time this year.

Who are these people? I have piles of work on my desk just like the next guy, but wasting vacation days?

I think you should have to use all your vacation time. And your sick time. And you should be allowed to delete any e-mail or voice mail that comes while you are gone.

I have never understood people who say they have too much work to take a vacation, but it could be worse. Those same people could end up ruining my time by calling the office on their cell phone while sitting on the beach. I hate those people.

Now I can understand if you have the option of cashing your days in because that’s a great way to stick it to the man. But people actually just let those days go to waste.

That’s un-American. We can’t say that about Thomas Stefanelli.

The 37-year-old pizza delivery man from Tampa, Fla., recently made a delivery and called his boss. Sounds unremarkable, huh?

Someone had shot Stefanelli on the delivery before that one. But he still made sure that the next pizza got there safely. That’s a hero.

Good thing this didn’t happen in Germany because his emergency room doctor could have had some strange techniques.

A court recently ordered a dentist in Munich to pay a former patient about $7,300 because he got her drunk.

Apparently, the patient needed a lot of root canals, and the dentist just wanted to get them all out of the way instead of taking a few weeks for the procedures.

So he performed 14 root canals during a massive 12-hour operation. Between procedures, he gave her a large glass of cognac to help relieve the pain.

Needless to say, that didn’t go over too well. Since this happened in Germany, I don’t know why he just didn’t wait until Oktoberfest and give her a few of those massive mugs of beer you always see people carrying around there.

That might even convince me to get a root canal. As long as it didn’t take more than 10 minutes because I’d have to call someone to let them know I was running late.