I got kicked out of the same high school, St. Louis Country Day, that one of my childhood movie heroes, Vincent Price, graduated from. No kidding – on both counts.

Yeah, I grew up on old horror flicks and, yes, I was usually cheering for the bad guy. And more often than not, the bad guy was Mr. Price. He just made evil so fun. But that's a story for another day.

Instead, let me tell you this story.

Around seventh or eighth grade, Country Day (now since merged with sister school Mary Institute to form "Mary Institute Country Day School." Ugh.) selected Price to be Alumnus of the Year. So he came to address the student body and receive his trophy or year's supply of Turtle Wax or whatever it was. I got to hear that voice, that Vincent Price voice, alive and in person that morning. (If all you know of Price is from "Edward Scissorhands," long past his glory days, then rent a flick or two from his heyday. I suggest "House of Wax," "The Abominable Dr. Phibes," and "House on Haunted Hill.") He spoke long past his allotted time, but none of us cared. Well, maybe a school administrator or two cared – I remember seeing the headmaster check his watch a time or three.

After the speech, I worked up the nerve to approach him. Price and headmaster Dr. John R. Johnson were walking across the quad, and I walked my shy little self right up, offered my hand and my congratulations and. . . he warmly accepted both. . .

. . .From some little boy who really had no business offering him either. He even said a few kind words back, and I even managed not to gush. He was a class act, and I was trying my damnedest to be one, too. It was quite a moment for me, and one I'm sure he forgot almost before it was over.

But that's not really the story I wanted to tell, either.

If you'll recall, 1982 was the same year Michael Jackson released "Thriller." The title cut included a "rap" (as even Price called it) by that master of horror himself, Vincent Price. What I recall was, during his acceptance speech, Mr. Price gave us a poetry reading – and our all-male student body sat there transfixed.

No, really.

The first poem was one of Price's favorites. Can't remember what it was, but it was something English and classic and beautiful. Probably Keats or Yeats or one of those fellows. And, of course, he read it with that voice of his. The second poem went like this:

Darkness falls across the land
The midnite hour is close at hand
Creatures crawl in search of blood
To terrorize y'awl's neighborhood

(Pause for laughter from Country Day students and faculty.)

And whosoever shall be found
Without the soul for getting down
Must stand and face the hounds of hell
And rot inside a corpse's shell
The foulest stench is in the air
The funk of forty thousand years
And grizzy…

(Another pause for laughter.)

…ghouls from every tomb
Are closing in to seal your doom
And though you fight to stay alive
Your body starts to shiver
For no mere mortal can resist
The evil of the thriller

That, of course, was Price's rap from "Thriller." And we got the message. Price made us understand, in a minute or two, what our Humanities teacher had been trying to get through our heads all semester: The classics are classics for good reason, and most of the new crap is crap. And for good reason.

Here's the latest crap from Jackson:

Pop star Michael Jackson is again at the centre of a police investigation. About 20 officers searched his California ranch on Tuesday as part of an ongoing but undisclosed criminal investigation. Jackson was not home.

Cable channel Court TV said the investigation stems from allegations of sexual abuse brought by a 12-year-old boy against the 45-year-old Jackson.

Up to 70 investigators from the Santa Barbara County sheriff's and district attorney's offices entered Jackson's sprawling Neverland Ranch outside of Santa Barbara on Tuesday morning. No immediate arrests were made.

Court TV reporter Diane Dimond, who is on the scene, says a source told her that police not only had a search warrant, but an arrest warrant.

Ten years ago, parents of another little boy settled a civil suit with Jackson over similar allegations, for something like 25 or 30 million dollars. They probably thought they got themselves a pretty sweet deal.

But if in getting their sweet deal, they left a monster free to molest another boy, then I can only hope their money buys them a sweet spot in Hell.