History
Talia Weisberg, an eighth-grade student at Manhattan Day School, a Jewish Orthodox yeshiva, won the New York City Daily News Spelling Bee on March 24, 2009. "This is something she wanted so badly, and she got what she wanted. I was so happy she got it because she is so undemanding," Weisberg's mother said.
In the Daily News Bee of 2008, she placed sixth. "This year I just wanted to place better than last year. When I got to fifth place, I looked at my mom smiling and waving at me and I knew I did all right," she said to the Daily News.
This year, her winning word was quietive, which means a sedative or tranquilizer . "Honestly, I'd never heard the word before. I just took a shot in the dark and spelled it phonetically," she said . Her mother was also a speller when she was a child, but never got as far as Talia did .
Weisberg appeared on New York One, NBC, and had an interview with Rosanna Scotto and Greg Kelly on Good Day New York on Fox Channel Five on March 25, 2009. Scotto had her spell the word privilege, and Weisberg gave Scotto prosciutto, both spelled correctly . She was also featured in the Epoch Times, USA Today, the New York Times, and radio station WNYC.
Weisberg's prizes were a trophy, laptop, tickets to Broadway play In the Heights, the soundtrack of In the Heights, and a signed poster from the cast, tickets to the Ringling Brothers circus, tickets to the Bronx Zoo, tickets to Circleline Cruises, and a savings bond from Jay Sugarman.
On March 29, 2009, she won first place in the New York City National History Day paper category.
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