Nearly a year ago, Burlington announced plans to revamp all existing locations. The retailer hoped to bring customers the same great deals in updated stores to make their shopping experience more enjoyable. “At Burlington, shoppers already know that they can find the very best values on branded apparel, footwear, beauty, accessories and home fashions, but now, our newly reimagined store layout makes their shopping experience easier, more exciting and more enjoyable”, Michael O’Sullivan, CEO of Burlington Stores, shared in a news release. “Feedback from customers has been overwhelmingly positive – they love finding great deals, and they love shopping our newly redesigned stores. In addition, the brand had plans for new stores across the country. In July 2026, Burlington will open 12 new locations just in time for back-to-school shopping. Kids are excited about new wardrobes, and moms and dads love the idea of saving money. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Burlington (@burlingtondeals) The New Burlington Stores Will Open in Six States Having a Burlington in your neighborhood means more than just a place to shop. The retailer is committed to giving back and becoming an important part of the community. One way the company gives back is through donation drives. “Our annual Burlington Coat Event is hosted in partnership with the national non-profit organization, Delivering Good. During our Coat Event, customers who purchased a coat received an offer redeemable at any Burlington location at a later date. And, in the spirit of giving, Burlington donated 50,000 new coats to help neighbors in need within our store communities,” the website explains. The 12 new Burlington stores will open throughout July. California Montclair Idaho Moscow Oregon Hillsboro Keizer Salem Pennsylvania Quakertown Tennessee Paris Texas Austin Denton Forney Houston Lubbock This story’s featured image is by Deb Cohn-Orbach/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

John Denver’s hit 1971 song “Take Me Home, Country Roads” may very well be the song of the summer. It’s certainly the unofficial anthem of the 2026 World Cup for the United States. The tune has gone viral for U.S. fans belting it out following the team’s World Cup wins against Paraguay and Australia, and even after the loss against Turkey. According to Major League Soccer, Denver’s song was submitted to FIFA by the U.S. Men’s National Team (USMNT) as an option to be played following World Cup wins. Amy Hopfinger, a former executive at U.S. Soccer, ultimately chose the song for the USMNT from a list of other possible hits to be used during warmups, goals and wins. Other potential song choices included “Sweet Caroline” by Neil Diamond and Bon Jovi’s “Livin’ on a Prayer.” USMNT player Chris Richard told Major League Soccer, “All of us know that part of being American is knowing ‘Country Roads,’ so we were all singing it together… It was cool, again, to hear everything from the crowd, and the crowd knows they’ve been our 12th man so far in this tournament. If we need that extra one percent, they’re always there for us. So it’s been amazing.” @nbcla The U.S. men’s national soccer team chose “Take Me Home, Country Roads” by John Denver as their postgame song after wins. Here’s how it happened. ♬ original sound – NBC Los Angeles Although the song was made famous by the folk singer’s distinctive voice, he had some help co-writing the lyrics to his massive hit. The backstory of “Take Me Home, Country Roads” Denver’s hit song was co-written by two men named Bill Danoff and Taffy Nivert, according to the Library of Congress. They were Denver’s friends and fellow musicians, and had intended to sell the song to country legend Johnny Cash. One of the song’s most famous lines is: “West Virginia, mountain mama, take me home, country roads.” Although the song is considered a tribute to the state of West Virginia, neither of the three artists had ever visited. “The inspiration to sing about this state came from a set of beautiful postcards a friend had sent to Bill Danoff,” the Library of Congress states. In January 1971, Denver recorded the song in New York City. It was subsequently released as a single on April 12, 1971. It was Denver’s most successful song of his career, and peaked at #2 on the Billboard US Hot 100 singles by August 1971. The legacy of “Take Me Home, Country Roads” Denver told the press in 1971 more about his hit song, sharing, “We wanted it to be melancholic and nostalgic but at the same time happy… ‘Country Roads’ says good things about what people everywhere can relate to.” Denver’s life came to a tragic end on October 12, 1997, after the plane he was piloting crashed in California. He was just 53 years old. However, his legacy lives on through his music—particularly “Take Me Home, Country Roads.” In 1998, Denver was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame for the hit song. In 2014, the state of West Virginia made “Take Me Home, Country Roads” one of its official state anthems, and the song was also added to the Library of Congress’s National Recording Registry in 2023. The post The surprising backstory of John Denver’s 1971 American classic ‘Take Me Home, Country Roads’ appeared first on Upworthy.

You know the feeling. You’re boarding a plane, your toddler is already squirming in your arms, and somewhere in your bag is the tablet you swore you wouldn’t use until you absolutely had to. The seatbelt sign dings. The cabin door thuds shut. And the math starts running in your head: two hours, one tiny human, and zero escape routes. The stress starts to climb. Suddenly, you’re hyperaware of everything around you. If things go completely off the rails and my kid starts wailing, how will the person next to me react? Will they judge me for pulling out the iPad?  A little girl seated in front of an iPad. Photo credit: Canva Screens, in their many forms, are an inevitable part of modern life, even for young children. Everywhere you go—restaurants, malls, airports—you’ll see kids eagerly reaching for phones and tablets, their faces lit by tech’s blue-light glow. No matter how you feel about this trend, the decision of whether to give your child access to a smart device should always feel like a choice, not obligatory. But what other options are there, really? So, up in the air, trapped on a two-hour flight with a toddler, one mom decided to find out what would happen if she didn’t reach for the screen. One flight, timed by the minute TikTok creator Hala (@hala.khalifeh) posted a video titled “everything my toddler did on a 2-hour flight and how long each thing occupied her for (screen-free),” and it’s exactly as delightful as it sounds. No vague advice here. Instead, she gave us the play-by-play, timed down to the minute, listing each activity and how many minutes it bought her. No rounding up, no pretending. Just an honest stopwatch running on her toddler’s attention. @hala.khalifeh i’m gonna take a 5 hour nap now #flightwithbaby #babytraveltips #babytravel #toddlertravel #diaperbagpacking ♬ C.B.Rhumba by Sage Guyton and Jeremy Wakefield – SpongeRadio Some were surprise winners. A toy giraffe with bendy stretchy arms that stuck to the window? Eighteen minutes, and Hala’s daughter kept reaching back for it long after. “I didn’t think she would care for these, but she loved stretching the arms out and sticking them to the window,” she writes. A family photo album, which prompted pointing and little stories about each person, kept her daughter entertained for twelve minutes. An Arabic picture book with real photographs—not illustrations—held her for fourteen. And of course, there were also flops. Finger puppets lasted, in Hala’s words, “.9 seconds.” Why? Her daughter wasn’t a fan. “Hated this,” she continues. “Tough crowd.”  Fidget squares earned a whopping two minutes, followed by frustration. A rainbow fidget toy fell flat until the parents started playing with it themselves. Suddenly, it was interesting after all. Screenshot of @Hala.khalifeh’s video. That mix of wins and losses is exactly why the Internet fell for the video. “Using ‘tough crowd’ when a baby is unimpressed is the funniest thing ever,” one commenter wrote. Another offered a tip from the trenches: a toddler once sat beside them on the plane and happily played with tape—normal Scotch tape—for 90 minutes, writing “she was happy, and her parents were eternally grateful.”  It’s the rare parenting post that feels like a friend texting you, not an influencer selling you something. The biggest hits weren’t toys  Look closely at Hala’s video, and a pattern jumps right out: her daughter’s longest, happiest stretches weren’t because of toys at all. Watching her parents open and close their fists together? Eleven minutes of pure elation. Looking at Dad’s phone background—a photo of Mom—achieved twelve minutes of “MAMA!” and laughing. Pointing out the window at the mountains during landing, giggling at the turbulence, held her for another eleven. Even the ceiling lights and air vents got a delighted, “Light! Light!” for three minutes.  Screenshot of @Hala.khalifeh’s video. Notice the through-line. The fidget toy only worked once the parents pretended to care about it first. The second time, they hung it up so it swayed in the air, and it became a 16-minute winner, because now it was moving and invited her in. The activities that lasted longest were the ones where a grown-up joined in on the fun. The active ingredient wasn’t the giraffe or the fidget square. It was a parent engaging with their child. The toys were just the excuse for connection, props in a two-hour conversation between a kid and the people she loves most. Why a little boredom is magic  So why do the homemade, low-tech objects so often beat the high-tech gadgets? For very young kids, “nothing to do” is exactly where the magic happens. A screen hands a toddler a finished experience—bright, fast, and complete. There’s nothing left for them to build. An empty moment does the opposite and hands them a job. “Figure out how to fill it,” it says.  When a toddler isn’t being entertained, they start doing the inventing themselves: pointing, narrating, turning a closed fist into a guessing game, deciding a stretchy giraffe arm belongs on the window. @interiorniche Most kids aren’t behind, they’re just overstimulated. My toddlers have never watched a movie… and here’s what changed. Boredom stopped being a problem and started becoming the place their creativity came back. No constant screens. No constant noise. Just kids learning how to be kids again. ♬ original sound – Krystine | Interior Niche That invention is the brain developing. Researchers who study early childhood have linked unstructured, child-led play with stronger creativity, problem-solving, patience, and self-regulation—the very skills a screen tends to replace.  “The brain is at its most rapidly developing state during the first five years,” explains Dr. John Hutton of Cincinnati’s Children Hospital. “This is when the brain is highly adaptable…screen time may be too passive for optimal brain development.” Boredom itself is a feature, not a bug. Some researchers argue that a child’s inability to sit with boredom—not toys—is what predicts trouble down the road, including weaker creativity and more difficulty focusing. The psychologist Peter Gray has made the case that the time he had as a child “to be bored and figure out how to overcome boredom” taught him more than school. In other words, that squirmy, restless stretch before your toddler invents a new game isn’t the problem. The issue lies with tech’s new escape route.  Letting boredom do its job Hala’s video is enchanting the Internet because of this notion: we can find new, creative ways to entertain our kids without screens. In the 21st century, that looks like fidget toys and personalized objects—not leaving them to stare off into space, necessarily. Those eleven minutes of opening and closing fists weren’t trivial. That’s boredom doing its job, as a toddler and her parents invented fun out of thin air.  Screenshot of @Hala.khalifeh’s video. The major health groups back the instinct to go easy on screens early. The World Health Organization suggests no screen time for babies under 1, and no more than an hour a day for ages 2 to 4. The American Academy of Pediatrics advises skipping screen media—beyond a video chat with Grandma—before 18 months, and urges parents to think about what screens crowd out: sleep, play, and back-and-forth interaction. But the more interesting takeaway isn’t what to avoid. It’s what you gain. The thing that fills the space, it turns out, is you. And here’s the best part: this isn’t just a flight trick. The same thing that buys you eleven quiet minutes at 30,000 feet works in a doctor’s waiting room, a long car ride, or a restaurant where the food is taking forever. Boredom is portable, and so is the fix. Steal these screen-free tips  A young boy plays with his toys. Photo credit: Canva If Hala’s video has inspired you to travel without screens, here are a few ideas that consistently work with toddlers.  Pack novelty, not volume. A few new-to-them objects beat a giant pile of familiar toys. Rotate them every 15–20 minutes, so each one feels like a small event. Bring real-photo books. Hala noticed that picture books with real images held her daughter far longer than cartoons or illustrations. Real faces and animals invite real conversation. Use the plane itself. Window shades, ceiling lights, air vents, and the view outside are free and endlessly fascinating to a child seeing them for the first time. Let snacks be an activity. Slow, fiddly snacks buy time and double as a calm-down tool. Hala’s daughter had a “death grip” on her pancakes for five minutes. “We left early, so this was her breakfast. Snacks are always a win,” she wrote.  Try painter’s tape. Cheap, mess-free, leaves no residue, and toddler-approved, per that grateful seatmate’s comment.  Narrate everything. Half the magic is your voice. Name the mountains, count the seats, point at the clouds. Your attention is the toy they never get tired of. Next time you’re airborne…  So if you’re dreading an upcoming flight with a young child, remember Hala’s giraffe: sometimes the thing that buys you eighteen minutes is the one you almost left at home. A screen-free flight with a toddler isn’t about being a perfect parent. It’s about being present and discovering that your kid would rather have you than the screen anyway. The post Science says boredom is magic for toddler brains. One couple put it to the test at 30,000 feet. appeared first on Upworthy.

America’s 250th anniversary will take place on July 4, 2026. For many, this means gathering in the evening to witness dazzling displays of fireworks. Displays will vary, from elaborate stadium shows to family and friends simply lighting Roman candles in the backyard.  But this Fourth of July staple is eight times older than America itself. Its story stretches back more than two thousand years, evolving with each generation before becoming part of America’s biggest celebration. The earliest sparks of fireworks While some historians think the earliest adaptations go back to the Middle East or India, the general consensus credits an accidental discovery in China around the first century B.C. As the story goes, roasted bamboo exploded with a bang due to its hollow air pockets, becoming a natural firecracker of sorts. They became a go-to tool for warding off wild animals and evil spirits. Then, between 600 and 900 A.D., came the discovery of gunpowder in a supposed alchemical quest for immortality. While the sulfur, charcoal, and potassium nitrate didn’t provide eternal life, it did put on quite a show under extreme heat. The then-novel substance was stuffed into bamboo shoots, and later paper tubes, that were then thrown into the fire to produce a loud blast. And voila, the first fireworks were born. Of course, as The Smithsonian explains, a fireworks show in 800 A.D. would likely feel rudimentary compared to what we have today. There was nothing blasted into the air, no added colors. But still, there was plenty enough excitement to quickly become a tradition for celebration and entertainment.  Firecrackers were also experimented with on the battlefield. At first, they were attached to arrows and aimed at enemy targets, acting as crude bombs. Eventually, Chinese artillerymen learned how to fire them into the air, giving us the world’s first rocket cannons. This technology would eventually lead to the aerial displays we are accustomed to today.  Fireworks make their way around the world By the 13th and 14th centuries, both fireworks and gunpowder were spreading throughout Europe and Arabia. And with them, the limitless potential for beauty and destruction.  During this time, a job in fireworks was just about as dangerous as a job in the military. Before the show, the audience would be greeted by a hype man, essentially, who would tell jokes to the crowd while wearing leaves to protect themselves from incoming sparks. This earned them the moniker of “green men.” However, no amount of leaves could truly save them from becoming injured or killed when the detonations malfunctioned. As they staked claim in the New World, Europeans brought their knowledge and appreciation of this illuminating art form with them. As legend has it, Captain John Smith, said to be saved from execution by Pocahontas, set off the first display in Jamestown in 1608.  A celebration written into history Even though fireworks were regularly used by this time for military victories, they might not have been so closely linked with Independence Day had it not been for a letter John Adams wrote to his wife.  On July 2, 1776, two days before the Declaration of Independence was signed, Adams wrote that the most “memorable day in the history of America,” would be celebrated annually. Therefore, it “ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade… bonfires and illuminations [fireworks]… from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forevermore.” Just as Adams wished, the following year fireworks commemorated America’s first anniversary as its own country, and continued to do so over two centuries later. It wouldn’t be until the 1830s that we got multicolored explosions, though.  Funny enough, civilians getting carried away with fireworks is also etched into American history. According to History.com, Rhode Island officials banned the “mischievous use of pyrotechnics” in 1731 thanks to too many firecracker-related pranks. Later, the Society for the Suppression of Unnecessary Noise, which included Mark Twain and Thomas Edison, aggressively lobbied against firecrackers and noisy celebrations near hospitals and schools to protect public health, via the “Safe and Sane Fourth” campaign.  Every time you enjoy fireworks, be it for the Fourth of July, New Year’s, a home run for your favorite team, or (safely and legally) at the place you call home for funsies, you are experiencing 2000 years’ worth of history. They’re a miracle of science that’s outlasted dynasties, crossed oceans, and become part of celebrations around the world. And even after all these years, it still invokes us with wonder and excitement. If that’s not magic…I don’t know what is.  The post Fireworks were ‘discovered’ in China 2000 years ago. How did they become a 4th of July staple? appeared first on Upworthy.

In late 1984, a 15-year-old metalhead named Stephen Rea was living in Northern Ireland, hunting down concert bootlegs by mail and reading every music magazine he could find. His god was Ozzy Osbourne. So when he saw that a massive festival called Rock in Rio was happening that January in Brazil with Ozzy, Queen, and AC/DC all on the bill, it might as well have been on the moon, until his father stunned him by offering to take him. To shave the cost, Rea’s mother wrote a letter to Osbourne’s fan club, the Ozzy Osbourne Information Centre, asking whether there were any ticket packages for a paid-up young member. As recounted in Rea’s 2025 memoir, the letter laid it on with maternal pride: her son was member number 00090, one of Ozzy’s biggest fans who bought every LP, single, and scrap of merchandise tied to the man. View this post on Instagram A major surprise She didn’t expect much. What she got was a phone call. Sharon Osbourne’s assistant, a woman named Lynn, tracked down the family’s number (which the mother hadn’t even included) and called. If you’re serious about getting to Brazil, Lynn told her, don’t worry about a thing once you arrive. Just get yourselves to Rio. What happened in Rio bent the whole trajectory of Rea’s life. “They give me a backstage pass,” he recalled in an interview with 101WRIF. They put him on Ozzy’s tour bus to and from the shows and stood him at the side of the stage for both performances. And then came the moment that still undoes him forty years later: Ozzy invited the teenager and his parents to breakfast on Copacabana Beach. No security, no handlers, no entourage. Just Ozzy Osbourne and a starstruck family from Belfast. “I had a week in Brazil with my hero,” Rea said. Osbourne also handed the kid a gift that turned out to matter more than either of them could have known: two leatherbound notebooks, with instructions to keep a journal of his adventures. Rea filled them. Across the 1980s and ’90s, as that Rio trip blossomed into a real friendship and Rea grew up to become Osbourne’s assistant road manager, the notebooks captured a thousand backstage moments that would otherwise have evaporated. Decades later, they became the backbone of his memoir, Ozzy and Me. Lifelong friendship The friendship lasted the rest of Osbourne’s life. When Black Sabbath played their farewell show, “Back to the Beginning,” in Birmingham in July 2025, weeks before Osbourne died, Rea was there, listed on the crew by his old fairy godmother Lynn so he wouldn’t have to scalp a ticket. He watched Ozzy, visibly frail with Parkinson’s, grip the mic with a shaking hand and sing. “It was a charged song anyway, but watching Ozzy, listening to his vocals, his hand shaking as he gripped the mic, made my eyes well,” Rea wrote in the excerpt Rolling Stone published. It’s the kind of full-circle story that sounds invented, except it’s thoroughly documented—in a published memoir, in interviews, in a 1988 photograph of Ozzy, Geezer Butler, and a young Rea grinning together. A mother wrote one letter hoping to save a few pounds on tickets. Four decades later her son was standing at the side of the stage, watching his hero one last time, holding notebooks the man had given him when he was fifteen. The post A 15-year-old’s mom wrote to Ozzy Osbourne’s fan club. It started a 40-year friendship. appeared first on Upworthy.