The gourmet food Serena Williams ordered off the hotel room-service menu for dogs looked good enough for her to eat. So the top-ranked tennis player sampled it, and she later got sick.
Williams posted a video Wednesday on Snapchat showing the salmon and rice dish she ordered for her Yorkshire Terrier at their hotel during the Italian Open.
Noting how good it looked, she told the camera, "I ate a spoonful. Don't judge me."
Williams said the bite tasted "a little bit like a house-cleaner thing," but she ate it anyway.
She said she had to run to the bathroom within two hours of eating the bite of food. She recovered in time to beat fellow American Christina McHale 7-6(7), 6-1 in the third round Thursday.
The dog, Chip, appeared fine after watching Williams from her player's box.
"I don't think it's consumable for humans," Williams said of the doggy menu. "They should have wrote that."
Losing stinks
Defeat doesn't smell too sweet for the Dallas Zoo, which staked a smelly bet on the Dallas Stars winning their Stanley Cup playoff series against the St. Louis Blues.
The Blues beat the Stars 6-1 Wednesday night in Game 7 of the NHL Western Conference semifinals. The Dallas and St. Louis zoos engaged in some friendly smack talk before the first game of the series April 29, and they placed a bet on the outcome of the best-of-seven series.
Now to pay off the bet, a vice president from the Dallas Zoo will travel to St. Louis and wear a Blues hat and/or shirt while shoveling about 250 pounds of elephant dung, Dallas Zoo spokesman Laurie Holloway told The Dallas Morning News.
Take the air out
At least one Nebraska resident would like to see the Cornhuskers put an end to their long-standing tradition at Memorial Stadium in Lincoln of releasing balloons into the air after the team's first touchdown.
Randall Krause of Omaha filed a lawsuit against the university Monday over the tradition, saying the red balloons pose a threat to young children and wildlife after they fall to the ground.
In the 14-page complaint, he also alleges the 50-plus-year tradition basically amounts to "the open dumping of solid waste," which violates environmental laws.
A university spokesman declined to comment, other than saying the school is aware of the lawsuit but does not comment on pending litigation. Krause also did not return a phone call seeking comment.
Nebraska currently uses biodegradable natural latex and cotton strings in its balloons.
Krause isn't the first person to oppose the tradition. In 2014, a Nebraska environmentalist started an online petition opposing the practice. The petition received 587 signatures, falling short of its 1,000-signature goal.
Sports on 05/13/2016