To answer the questions backward: yes, I remember Shamu, having once been one of the lucky children chosen to sit on him after the show; and no, I didn't taste him.
You know, in nearly twenty years since I've left grade school, not once, not once have I needed to know the name of a single capital city. Why not teach the kid something useful, like molecular biology or calculus?
Check out Larry Gonick's Cartoon History of... series. The Modern World (volume 1) just came out.