I've Got Your Number Trivia Quiz

Answer: 867-5309

Scrawled under the legend "For a good time call Jenny," 867-5309 proved to be surprisingly catchy for a seven-digit number. The song climbed to number 4 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, making it Tommy Tutone's second (and last) hit. Unfortunately for some telephone users, it's also a valid number (unlike the numbers usually used in movies and TV shows, which all begin with 555-). Pity the poor crank call recipient who happens to be named Jenny!

Answer: It was his prisoner number, and remains a symbol of his past.

As a young man in early 19th-century France, Jean Valjean stole a single loaf of bread to save his sister's children from starvation -- and ended up serving 19 years as Prisoner 24601. Victor Hugo's epic 1862 novel traces Valjean's story of redemption, suffering and sacrifice; follows his flight from and struggles against the implacable Inspector Javert; and places all this against a vivid backdrop of poverty, injustice and revolution.

The hit musical, composed in 1980 by Claude-Michel Schönberg (with lyrics by Alain Boublil), necessarily omits much of this backdrop, but keeps Valjean's struggles with himself and with Javert. Its haunting tunes and elaborate staging have brought Hugo's story fully into popular culture. Throughout the show, Valjean's old prisoner number is used as a shorthand for where he came from, and for what he fears becoming again.

Answer: He is a man.

The One State is founded on the principles of conformity and simple mathematics -- everything from sleep times, clothing "choices", and sexual partners is strictly numerically regulated. The people's numbers do allow some small amount of differentiation, though. Men are numbered with a consonant followed by an odd number, while women are numbered with a vowel followed by an even number; these numbers are with them from birth forward. D-503, a mathematician, is (in the classic literary tradition) perfectly content with this society -- until he falls in love with the rebellious I-330.

While writing this novel, Zamyatin -- a patriotic Russian and supporter of the October Revolution -- was watching with dismay as Communist control of the country tightened. He expressed his horror in writing, a fact which did not escape the attention of the authorities: "We" was the first work banned by the censorship bureau Glavlit. Zamyatin died in exile in 1937; "We" was not published in its native country until 1988.

Answer: He is a baseball star credited with 3000 hits.

When Ross gets his 3000th hit, he believes that his position in the Hall of Fame is secure and decides to retire -- despite the fact that his team, which relies on him as one of their star hitters, is in the middle of the postseason pennant race. After nine years of exploiting his record to make his new business more successful, he discovers that three of his hits were counted twice -- so he's really Mr. 2997. Older, out-of-shape, but still hoping for that Hall of Fame honor, he rejoins his old team at the end of a poor season, trying to reclaim those three hits and remake himself as a person.

When "Mr. 3000" was released, only 24 major league baseball players had achieved 3000 career hits, with the most recent being the beloved Cal Ripken, Jr. in 2000 -- so 3000 hits was indeed a rare milestone.

Answer: The T-1000 is from "I, Robot."

The T-1000, played by Robert Patrick, is a shapeshifting robot sent from the future to assassinate John Connor in the movie "Terminator 2." Luckily for the boy, a "good" Terminator robot -- Arnold Schwarzenegger's Model 101 -- has come back too, for his protection. Neither of these robots was present in "I, Robot," either the short story collection by Isaac Asimov or the 2004 movie it inspired.

The "Star Wars" series' R2D2 is a surprisingly lovable blue, gray and white robot shaped somewhat like a domed trashcan. Although its vocal communication is limited to beeps and whistles, it saves the day regularly and displays a sardonic sense of humor. Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan), a late addition to the crew of the starship Voyager, is a cyborg -- a mix of human and machine -- whose impersonal name reflects her former membership in the Borg collective. Number Six, played by Tricia Helfer, is (like the T-1000) a foe of humanity: she is a Cylon, a robot who appears human, and the many copies of her model pursue and plague the remnants of mankind on "Battlestar Galactica." (There's a different Number Six who was a main character on "The Prisoner" -- clearly, 6 is a number to be reckoned with.)

Answer: A 97-pound weakling

Beside a picture of a muscular Charles Atlas -- wearing only briefs -- the text of one 1947 ad read, "You wouldn't believe it, but I myself used to be a 97-lb weakling. Fellows called me 'Skinny.' Girls snickered and made fun of me behind my back. I was a flop." And then he discovered the method of "dynamic tension" -- a weight-free means to build strength by tensing one muscle against another -- and the rest was fitness history. He leapt at the chance to change his identity from Italian immigrant leatherworker Angelo Siciliano to circus strongman Charles Atlas, and soon parlayed his personal achievement into a successful mail-order fitness booklet company. (Though he died in 1972 at the age of 80, Charles Atlas Ltd. still sells his fitness program.)

The concept of the 97-lb weakling -- and especially the ads' imagery of the weakling being victimized by a sand-kicking, muscular bully -- has since spread throughout popular culture. The magazine "Fortune" used it for a pessimistic 2005 cover story: "Is America the World's 97-lb Weakling?" The "Rocky Horror Show" had an entire song -- "The Charles Atlas Song" -- on a man who began as "a weakling weighing 98 pounds," a lyric just distant enough from the ad copy that it doesn't violate the trademark.

Answer: Number 2

The movies reveal that Number 2 has spent all his life playing second fiddle to Dr. Evil -- even in grade school, Dr. Evil's test scores were higher. It thus seems only natural that Number 2 should help Dr. Evil build his evil empire, building a strong business network to fund plans for world domination.

But when Dr. Evil enters cryostasis in 1967, Number 2 realizes that he rather likes the number-one spot -- so he hardly welcomes Dr. Evil's dramatic 1997 return in "Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery." As he notes at the end of the movie, Dr. Evil's plans stand to destroy everything Number 2 has worked so hard for: "I spent the last 30 years of my life turning this two-bit evil empire into a world class multi-national corporation. I was going to have a cover story with 'Forbes.' But you, like an idiot, want to take over the world." (By the second movie, of course, they've made up again.)

Answer: Johnny Rivers

"Secret Agent Man" was written for a spy-themed British television show, "Danger Man," which got a new theme song and a new title ("Secret Agent") for its release in the U.S. The theme version was very brief; for its release as a single, new verses had to be added. The song presents the replacement of name with number as something of an advantage for the secret agent: "To everyone he meets he stays a stranger ... Ah, be careful what you say or you'll give yourself away. Odds are, you won't live to see tomorrow." It hit #3 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100.

The song has had staying power - since its initial release, it's been performed by a number of acts, including Devo (released in 1979) and Blues Traveler (1995), and been used in shows and movies from "Teen Titans" (with different words) to "Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery."

Answer: Maxwell Smart (Agent 86)

The television series "Get Smart" ran from 1965 to 1970. With comedian Mel Brooks as co-creator, it quickly became known for its boffo humor and over-the-top scenarios; Brooks described their strategy as "do what [James Bond] did except just stretch it half an inch." The incompetent but preternaturally lucky Maxwell Smart, paired with the much smarter 99, proved more than Communist spy agency KAOS could handle. The pair (with the original actors) appeared again in two 1980s films (1980's "The Nude Bomb" and 1989's "Get Smart, Again!"); the concept was remade with a new cast in 2008's "Get Smart."

The other choices are also central figures in spy comedies, although their agent numbers are entirely fabricated. Austin Powers, played by Mike Myers in the eponymous films, is a parody of James Bond's 1960s appearances. John Smith (Brad Pitt) appears in the 2005 movie "Mr. & Mrs. Smith," about a suburban husband and wife, neither of whom knows the other is an elite assassin. And Jacques Clouseau (mostly Peter Sellers), star of the "Pink Panther" series of films, is a bumbling French detective who constantly finds himself in over his head.

Answer: You have a license to kill while completing your missions.

When author Ian Fleming imagined the British intelligence agency MI6, he pictured suave spies on secret missions, known by the last few digits of their service numbers. But these numbers do not remain unchanged throughout their careers -- instead, they're an indication of status. The famed double-oh operatives have earned a license to kill in the fulfillment of their missions, giving them a certain freedom to improvise.

Curiously, this license to kill appears to be earned by, well, killing: the 2006 film "Casino Royale," a return to Bond's origins, shows him winning his license and 00 status after killing two people in the opening scenes.

Thank you for joining me on this numerical tour of pop culture. We've got their numbers now!