Edmond DeRousse's Blog (9)

Each one of us has a deep-seated fear. They come in all forms whether it’s fear of heights, to the more absurd, such as the fear of beautiful women (yes, there is such a thing. Look it up!). Well, there is one fear that is quite common. That is the fear of creepy, crawly insects. Surely, you can agree with me on this. Insects are so unpredictable and they can sneak into tiny space or any part of your body. Typing about that already makes my skin crawl, sheesh!…

Anyone remember Harvey Lembeck's Eric Von Zipper, the inept leader of “The Rat Pack” motorcycle gang in the Beach Party films with Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello during the 60s? Well, Eric Von Zipper was a parody of Marlon Brando's character in The Wild One, but his gang was inspired by The Hell's Angels (if the Three Stooges were running it anyway). 

More recently, you might remember John Travolta, Tim Allen, Martin…

Urban legends and ghost stories are part of our culture. It is in our nature to explore the eerie and spooky. We have an insatiable craving for stories that will make the hair on the back of your neck stand up. Well, let me tell you a tale that not many have heard of. It is the story of Mad Myrtle. Like many legends, there could be more than one version. This legend, though, originated somewhere in the Tri-State area where the infamous Tri-state Tornado of 1925 took place.…

Of course, we all know that we use our brain to solve problems and make critical decisions. But did you know that sometimes our mind plays tricks on us? Here are some examples you might find interesting.

False Memories

Yes, that’s right…false memories. All of us have special memories that we keep close to our heart and mind. We even replay them over and over at times. But are you aware that we can create memories without them ever occurring in the…

Mona Lisa. The world famous portrait of a woman with the mysterious smile is surely one of Leonardo Da Vinci’s most intriguing, well-praised, and well-studied work of art. Mona Lisa, who has been the object of study by scholars for more than 5 centuries, serves as an inspiration, and it continues to lure spectators to this day.

So, what’s the secret behind the smile? It sure looks like she knows something we don’t doesn’t she? Well, there are certainly many theories and studies that…

When I was growing up, my hometown of Sparta, Illinois, had two very prominent industries. They were coal mining and printing. Both provided a good standard of living for its workers.



One, though, had the distinction of being the innovator and the single largest producer of its product in the world. That belonged to our printing industry. It was known to the world as World Color Press. We simply referred to it as the “Comic Book Factory”.



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I was born and raised in Sparta, Illinois into a family of seven. It was the 1950s and things were much simpler then. No home computers, Facebook, Twitter, cell phones, etc. Sparta was then and has always been a neat little community.

The citizens of Sparta enjoy life in a small town and value family and friends. We look for the positive in life, help each other out, and even go to church together. It is a quiet community full of hard working, caring, and family-centered…

In 1966, a major motion picture was made in a small community in Southern Illinois.  As it turned out, the movie happened to be considered one of the best one hundred movies ever made. That movie, “In the Heat of the Night”, was made in my home town, Sparta, Illinois.



The movie was a mystery drama based on a 1965 book written by John Ball. It was about a black police detective, Virgil Tibbs, from Philadelphia, PA who became involved in a murder investigation in a small Mississippi…

It may come as a surprise to some people, but not all movies are made on a huge set in a warehouse in Los Angeles, or in location in New York, London, or any of the major big cities. Some movies are made in small towns on small budgets.



My town, Sparta, Illinois, which is also the setting of my book, The Mighty Spartan and His Common Man Adventures, was once the location of a movie filming in the 1960’s. It was In the Heat of the Night, and it starred Sidney Poitier, Rod Steiger and…