Nobody Here Agrees on What OH Wa FG Means — and That's Kind of the Point
Photo: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ESA/Spitzer/P. Oesch/S. De Barros/ I.Labbe, CC, via Wikimedia Commons
There are two kinds of people who stumble onto OH Wa FG. The first group clicks through, reads an article about competitive worm-charming or a barn auction in Wayne County, and never asks a single question about our name. The second group emails us within the hour.
This article is for group two.
Back in March, we put out a call: tell us what you think OH Wa FG stands for. Not what it actually stands for — because, as longtime members know, that answer has been deliberately fuzzy since day one — but what it could stand for. We got 214 submissions. Some were sincere. Some were essays. One was a limerick. We're honoring all of them here.
A Quick (and Deliberately Vague) History
For the newcomers: OH Wa FG started in 2019 as a Yahoo-era-style message board run out of a Columbus apartment, originally intended to coordinate carpools to a single flea market in Perry County. The name was chosen, according to founding member Deb Kowalski, "because it looked good on a sticker, and nobody could Google it, which felt right for a hobby club."
That's the whole official explanation. Deb has since moved to a farm outside Chillicothe and refuses further comment. The rest of us have spent six years filling in the blanks ourselves.
The Reader Theories, Ranked by Plausibility
"Ohio Weather Forecasting Guild" — Submitted 41 times, which is genuinely suspicious. It's plausible, it's Ohio, and it explains the "Wa." It's also boring, which is why it currently sits in second place in our reader poll.
"Ohio Waterfowl & Field Games" — A surprisingly popular pick that would explain our duck-blind-adjacent membership. We have no waterfowl. We have never had waterfowl. But several readers insist they joined because of this theory, so we're not correcting anyone.
"Ohio Waffle Fan Group" — Third place, 28 votes, and the strongest argument in its favor: "Waffle" fits the F and G, and honestly, who among us hasn't organized an entire social life around a waffle iron? One member, Rick from Toledo, claims the site's early layout "had a syrup-brown color scheme," which is true but coincidental.
"Our Hobbies Were A Fragmented Group" — A backronym that doesn't quite work letter-by-letter but won our "Most Convincing Despite Being Wrong" award. Submitted by a high school English teacher in Dayton who said it reminded her of her students' essays. We felt that.
The Absurd Bracket
We also ran a parallel contest for the most unhinged interpretation. The winner, by landslide: "Ohio Was Actually Florida's Ghost." No explanation was provided. None was needed. Runner-up went to "Opossums Have Won Again, Finally, Goodnight," which reads like a haiku about Ohio politics and earned a standing ovation at our spring meetup.
So What Does It Actually Mean?
We'll tell you what we tell everyone: come to the October potluck in Zanesville, ask Deb's cousin Earl, and enjoy whatever answer you get. Half the fun of a small hobby community is the mythology you build along the way. The name is a door with no room behind it — but look at everything we've built in the hallway.
The poll stays open through the end of the month. Vote early, vote weird, and if your theory beats "Waffle Fan Group," there's a hand-embroidered patch in it for you.
Got a theory we missed? Drop it in the comments or flag down any board member at the next swap meet. We read everything.
