Contrary to a popular myth, the song “867-5309/Jenny” didn’t cause TV shows and movies to start using the “555” prefix. It was a tradition begun in the Fifties since they often said “KLondike 5” for phone numbers. I’ve never understood the need for a word because I usually could remember over a dozen seven-digit numbers until my first cell phone made this ability pointless. Trust me, when I’m asked to give a contact number, I have to scramble through my iPhone to check.
Twenty years ago, I remember Details magazine publishing an article about the results they got calling all those famous pop-song numbers in their area code (probably NYC or LA). A couple of the answerers were pretty funny. I was amazed they dialed “PEnnsylvannia 65000.” Only my grandparents knew that joke.