[phone rings] RORY: He star sixty-nined us?
In North American telecommunications, a call return service for landline phones which automatically dials the number from which the last incoming call was made, activated by pressing the ‘star’ (*), 6, and 9 buttons.
In use since the 1990s, it is still available today, and is often a free service, but not always. It seems to still be a paid service in Connecticut in 2002, since Lorelai implies that a wealthy Harvard graduate can afford it.
[Picture shows still from a 1996 advertisement].
The Annotated Gilmore Girls 