By far the most popular section of EdgeCurve is the Captions Game. Thousands of captions are submitted every round by players around the world. We thought it would be fun to get to know some of the players that have either been playing for years now, or have an exceptional talent. Today, Q&A’s with the one and only, David Gerrold. Say hello to David in the comments below.

Mr. E: Hello David, please introduce yourself.
David: My name is David Gerrold. I’m old enough to have seen “I Love Lucy” first run. I write books, short stories, articles, and the occasional television script. I’ve won the Hugo Award and the Nebula Award for “The Martian Child,” the story of my son’s adoption. The movie version opens November 2nd, starring John Cusack, Amanda Peet, Joan Cusack, Angelica Huston, Richard Schiff, Oliver Platt, and Sophie Okonedo. If you google me, you’ll find out what I’m really famous for. But what I’m really proudest of is my son. I adopted him when he was 8 years old, and now he’s 23 and he’s almost human. I’m proud that I didn’t strangle him in his sleep during his teenage years.

Mr. E: What part of the country do you live in?
David: I live on the Left Coast. When the big one happens, the rest of the country is going to fall into the Atlantic Ocean.

Mr. E: What do you do when not playing the Captions Game?
David: I try to keep up with my email. I keep getting letters from Nigerian finance ministers who want to introduce me to sexy Russian ladies who will increase my breast size and my penis size (both at the same time), because if I break the chain and don’t send a card to the sick boy in England I’ll have ten years of bad luck. Otherwise, I write books.

Mr. E: How did you first hear about EdgeCurve’s Captions Game?
David: I don’t remember. Oh hell, at my age, I’m lucky to remember breakfast. I’ve been playing in the Captions Game since the first time Jeff Green posted, “Hey, this water just got warmer! Bad dog!” Or maybe even before that.

Mr. E: How else do you flex your creative muscle?
David: I do Flash animation. I edit my own videos. I restructure my website. In June, I directed “Blood And Fire”, a two-hour webisode of Star Trek New Voyages, a Star Trek series for the web. Otherwise I lie awake nights and plot revenge.

Mr. E: What sort of items have you bought with your Amazon winnings?
David: Books, CDs, DVDs. I have the world’s largest collection of CD tributes to the Beatles. There are over a thousand CDs that celebrate the music of Lennon & McCartney. I have about 950 of them. The Beatles’ music has been interpreted as jazz, soul, baroque, classical, chant, hillbilly, 50s rock, cha cha, bossa nova, electronic, heavy metal, punk, funk, and a few things that defy description.

Mr. E: If we asked, what four words would a best friend use to describe you?
David: (You’re assuming I have friends.) Some of the words that have been used to describe me include: Unreasonable. Committed. Mensch. Silly.

Mr. E: What would you say are some of your guilty pleasures?
David: Dark chocolate Dove bars. Heinlein juveniles. Marin Alsop’s recording of Saint-Saens’ Third Symphony. Boston Legal. Nethack. Star Trek Conventions. Ridiculing trolls in online forums. Dexter on Showtime.

Mr. E: What animal do you think you most resemble?
David: Probably a polar bear. I’m fat, have white hair, and like to eat fish.

Mr. E: Creamy or chunky peanut butter?
David: Neither. Yiccchh.

Mr. E: Do you remember what was the last book or magazine you read?
David: The last magazine I read was Maximum PC. (I used to build my own computers and write my own code.) The last book I read was Spider Robinson’s “Very Bad Things” which hasn’t been published yet, I read a sneak preview of it. It’s a sequel to “Very Bad Deaths.” I’ve also enjoyed “Hannibal Rising” by Higgins, “Variable Star” by Robinson and Heinlein, and I’m about to start the new Dexter book. (Look it up, I’m not going to do all the work here.)

Mr. E: What historical figure would you most like to have dinner with?
David: Too many to choose from. Alan Turing. Bayard Rustin. C.M. Kornbluth. Harry Truman. Ike. FDR. But first choice would be Robert F. Kennedy.

Mr. E: If we looked, what would we find on your iPod?
David: Nothing. I don’t have an iPod. I do have a Creative Zen Vision which has 30gb of storage. You’ll find all 9 Beethoven Symphonies. Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D Minor. Saint-Saens’ 3rd symphony, Dvorak’s 9th, Aaron Copland’s 3rd, Stravinsky’s “Rite of Spring” and “Firebird” and “Petrouchka”, Tchaikovsky’s “Sleeping Beauty” and “Swan Lake” and “Nutcracker” and “1812” and “Romeo and Juliet”, Brahms 1st Symphony. A lot of ELO, The Doors, The Carpenters, all of The Beatles, The Lion King (guilty pleasure), Xanadu (another guilty pleasure), The Beach Boys’ “Good Vibrations”, Frankie Valli “Can’t Take My Eyes Off Of You”, and a few soundtracks. Titanic. (Very guilty pleasure.) Also a bunch of pictures of my son.

Mr. E: Lastly, you win (or are mentioned) a lot at the Captions Game, what advice can you give to all the other players that you beat so consistently?
David: Be funny. Be very funny.

But I don’t know what funny is until after I’m through laughing. I don’t beat anybody consistently. I’ve only won twice. The rest are honorable mentions. And sometimes even my best don’t get honorably mentioned. Like the time — never mind. I think the best captions are the ones that are so out-of-the-box, you can’t even see them coming, but after-the-fact you realize they were inevitable. (Like the one I submitted for the picture of all the 2nd graders making faces at the camera. That one came to me out of nowhere.)

I like it when submitted captions refer to earlier pictures or other contestants. It creates a sense of community. Meanwhile, I’m still trying to figure out how to submit a winning caption that will plug “The Martian Child” movie. Did I mention that it stars John Cusack and opens on November 2nd?