Federal Reserve (Solution)

by Robyn Speer, David Farhi, and David Roe

Each puzzle is associated with a U.S. city on the round page:
  • Kansas City: Too Many Seacrest
  • Atlanta: Permuted
  • Detroit: The Alphabet Book
  • Boise: My Socrates Note (event)
  • San Francisco: Infinite Cryptogram
  • St. Louis: Security Theater
  • Oklahoma City: Dear Abby
  • Chicago: Evolution
  • Birmingham: Around the World in 1 Day
  • Minneapolis: Trochees, Etc.
  • Memphis: Git Hub
  • Dallas: Eclectic Spatial Geometry
  • Houston: I Can See For Miles
  • New York: Till You Make It
  • Buffalo: Linked Pairs
  • Billings: My Cup Runneth Over

You have puzzle answers associated with cities, and you have the title "Federal Reserve".

Eight of the 16 cities are locations of U.S. Federal Reserve banks. The other eight are not, but one of them is in each Federal Reserve region served by the aforementioned eight banks.

Take a look at a dollar bill (a Federal Reserve Note). Each bill is issued at one of the twelve Federal Reserve banks, and this is indicated in many places: a letter, a number that's the index of that letter in the alphabet, the letter at the start of the serial number, and a fancy version of that letter in a circle with the city name around it.

Each of the 8 Fed cities contain one or two instances of their Federal Reserve letter in their answer. Line these up with the other city in each region, and find the letters in the corresponding positions, ordered by region number:

    New York (B): loBwedge
    Buffalo:      ecUmenical                      = U

    Atlanta (F): nutFlush
    Birmingham:  kliNgonambassadors               = N

    Chicago (G): kanGarooGrass
    Detroit:     hanKelfuNction                   = KN

    St. Louis (H): acHterbaHn
    Memphis:       scOutnetWork                   = OW

    Minneapolis (I): nIftymetalrobotnInja
    Billings:        eNormouslyproducTive         = NT

    Kansas City (J): geraldJford
    Oklahoma City:   darkbrOoding                 = O

    Dallas (K): eagleliKe
    Houston:    sweetwoOdbark                     = O

    San Francisco (L): namcomuseumvirtuaLarcade
    Boise:             electronictollcolLection   = L

The answer is UNKNOWN TOOL.