As Columbus's Thurber House celebrates its 40th anniversary, the literary nonprofit is in danger of closing its doors due to a lack of funding — and its leaders are asking for the community's support.

Why it matters: Thurber House offers space and resources for young writers, organizing literature-related events for the community, but could face closure without meeting a $200,000 fundraising goal.

Driving the news: Late last month, Thurber House announced it was "facing uncertainty," and launched a fundraising campaign.

Threat level: Visitors and ticket sales, which the house relies on for funding, have yet to rebound to pre-pandemic numbers.

• The nonprofit has had to lay off staff, whittling down to a "skeleton crew" of four.

Flashback: Thurber House was the home of humorist James Thurber, a prolific early 20th-century author, journalist and playwright who lived there from 1913-17 while studying at OSU.

• Originally built in 1873, the house was used as a music school, beauty shop and boarding house before eventually falling into disrepair and undergoing a substantial renovation in the 1970s.
• The house is on the National Register of Historic Places and still stands downtown at 77 Jefferson Ave.

State of play: Today, Thurber House calls itself "Columbus's literary arts hub." It hosts programs and youth camps, organizes writing workshops and awards the Thurber Prize for American Humor.

• In addition to community work, the nonprofit has hosted events with the likes of Henry Winkler, Mo Rocca and prominent Columbus author and poet Hanif Abdurraqib.

What's next: With enough fundraising help, Thurber House plans an expanded lineup of programs and community outreach, including increased writing camp capacity, the launch of an "adult writers' studio" and a greater presence in K-12 schools, libraries and senior living communities.

The latest: The funding drive had raised around $42,000 as of Sunday, about 20% of its goal.

• An update to the drive thanked the community for an "incredible outpouring of support and love," and said the fundraiser "will continue as our team works tirelessly to bring Thurber House back to financial stability."

Despite its loss to Michigan, Ohio State will host a first-round game in the first-ever 12-team College Football Playoff.

Driving the news: The Buckeyes were seeded 8th, and will host 9th seed Tennessee in Columbus on Dec. 21 at 8pm on ESPN/ABC

The big picture: This marks the first year of expansion from four to 12 teams for the CFP during a college football season that saw no shortage of drama.

State of play: No. 1 Oregon (Big Ten), No. 2 Georgia (SEC), No. 9 Boise State (Mountain West) and No. 12 Arizona State (Big 12), respectively, locked up the top four seeds as the highest-ranked conference champs, securing first-round byes in the process.

• ACC champion No. 16 Clemson grabbed the 12th seed.

Zoom in: Here are the rest of the seeds and matchups:

• 12th seed Clemson at 5th seed Texas on Dec. 21 at 4pm ET on TNT/Max
• 11th seed SMU at 6th seed Penn State on Dec. 21 at noon ET on TNT/Max
• 10th seed Indiana at 7th seed Notre Dame on Dec. 20 at 8pm ET on ESPN/ABC

The intrigue: Alabama and Miami were each left out of the playoffs after suffering ugly losses toward the end of the regular season.

How to watch: Round 1 of the CFP will take place Dec. 20-21 as teams seeded No. 5-12 will battle to advance to the second round.

• The quarterfinals will take place on Dec. 31 and Jan. 1 at neutral locations in the first four of the New Year's Six bowls.
• The semifinals are Jan. 9-10 as all roads lead to the National Championship on Jan. 20 in Atlanta.

📝 Central Ohio students are still struggling to recover from the impacts of the pandemic. (Dispatch)

⚖️ An Ohio State researcher and a professor are suing president Ted Carter and a university police officer after they were arrested during protests in April. (WOSU)

🥗 East Market is adding hibachi, salad and barbecue restaurants this month. (Columbus Business First 🔒)

🏥 A former nurse at Nationwide Children's Hospital and Wexner Medical Center was sentenced to more than 17 years in prison after pleading guilty to child pornography charges. (WCMH-TV)

📼 Newly released body camera footage shows the arrest of the driver who allegedly hit and killed Columbus Blue Jackets player Johnny Gaudreau and his brother in August. (WBNS-TV)

👋 Andrew here. While downtown last week, I came across this gingerbread version of our iconic LeVeque Tower.

It got me wondering: How many other Central Ohio landmarks have been reproduced in cookie form around town?

📧 Reply to this email to let us know if you spot one.

And if you're a gingerbread enthusiast, be sure to check out the best in show at Franklin Park Conservatory's annual contest.

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The national share of mortgage-free homes continues to reach new highs, and Ohio is in line with the country's average, according to the latest census data.

By the numbers: The share of mortgage-free homes climbed from 35.7% to 39.8% in the past decade, per the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey one-year estimates.

• Ohio's 39.9% share nearly matches the national average.
• States including West Virginia and Mississippi have higher shares, while California and Washington have lower shares.

The big picture: Many outright homeowners are baby boomers who refinanced when mortgage rates were lower.

• Living mortgage-free doesn't mean living expense-free, but it's often reason enough for empty nesters to hold on to their big homes.