See Us At
Jan 26-28th!
FREE • EagleStarReview.com
Week of Jan. 24, 2024 Home of The McGrath Family
Proudly serving Liverpool, Salina, North Syracuse, Cicero & Clay
PENNY SAVER: CNY’S BEST BUSINESS SERVICE DIRECTORY INSIDE!
WORK BUY SELL TRADE GET IT DONE
‘The Book of Quint’
‘Jaws’ prequel will plug into film’s 50th anniversary
BY RUSS TARBY CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Ryan Dacko has packed a lot of livin’ over his 45 years. He has worked as an underwater welder, served on the crew of an oceanic icebreaker, and he sailed to both the North and South poles as a Coast Guard seaman. Living with his wife, Tatiana, and three children in Syracuse’s Onondaga Hill neighborhood, Dacko, a National Grid lineman, is ready for the ride of his life, one that could eventually take him all the way to Hollywood. After many years of research and a lifelong love of a certain 1975 summer blockbuster, Dacko has written a novel called “The Book of Quint,” a prequel to Peter Benchley’s 1974 novel, “Jaws.” A year after Benchley’s book was published, Steven Spielberg filmed it. Shot on a budget of $9 million, the movie earned an astounding $476 million at the box office. Dacko wrote “The Book of Quint” to celebrate the 50th anniversary of “Jaws,” which is approaching in 2025. “The Book of Quint” is the prequel to “Jaws”-- the prequel that Spielberg always wanted to do as a follow-up to his hit movie. Dacko’s book follows clues and characters from the movie and creates an entire backstory for Captain Quint, the fearless fisherman made famous by Robert Shaw’s performance. “It’s the human stories that I’m interested in,” Dacko said in a recent telephone interview. “Heck, the shark is only in the movie for a total of three minutes!” And the film is 124 minutes long. Dacko has been obsessed with “Jaws” for most of his life. Even as a second grader at St. James Elementary on Syracuse’s South Side, he wrote a book report on Benchley’s novel. Dacko later graduated from Bishop Grimes High School before he began his own seafaring careers. Those years aboard icebreakers and
Submitted photo
Ryan Dacko has penned a new novel that served as a prequel to “Jaws.” Coast Guard ships gave Dacko a deep personal understanding of the occupational risks and challenges on the ocean. Dacko has dabbled with screenwriting over the years. While in the Coast Guard, he used his free time while on a tour of duty at Antarctica to create a screenplay called “And I Lived,” a melodrama about high-school lovers. In 2007 he wrote the script for “Plan 9 from Syracuse,” a documentary about his attempt to gain attention from a prominent movie producer by staging a cross-country run from Syracuse to Hollywood. As a novelist, Dacko was most inspired by the late-night shipboard conversation
in “Jaws” in which Captain Quint recalls the sinking of the USS Indianapolis in the waning months of World War II. “Eleven-hundred men went into the water...” So begins the haunting monologue in which Quint describes his experience on that doomed warship which had just delivered the first atomic bomb to Tinian and was on its way to the Philippines, when a Japanese submarine sank it with two torpedoes. The big ship went down in 12 minutes, leaving hundreds of crew floating in the ocean with hardly any food, water or lifeboats. During the next five days most died from a combination of exposure, salt poisoning, dehydration and the worst mass shark
attacks in recorded history. Just 316 of 1,195 crew survived. “This historic event provides the motivation for Quint’s iconic character in ‘Jaws,’” Dacko said. “That speech by Robert Shaw inspired it all.” Back in 2020, Dacko spent 14 long months researching the Indianapolis tragedy. In 2021 he threw himself into writing the novel and in May 2022 he connected with Benchley’s widow, Wendy Benchley, and eventually received the estate’s permission to pen the prequel. So as we approach the 50th anniversary of “Jaws,” Dacko has written the definitive prequel. Beginning with Quint adrift in the Philippine Sea, and following him first to San Francisco and then to Amity Island, we learn how he acquired his many scars, how he came to own his boat, the Orca, and how he developed his shark-hunting techniques. Now Dacko’s inviting all fans of the movie “Jaws” to come together and show a demand for a prequel to be made by Universal Studios. “With your pledge, not only will you experience ‘The Book of Quint’ as a published novel, but the numbers will be sent to Universal to show them the demand is there for more to the ‘Jaws,’” he said. “In essence this is a giant petition to Universal Studios. Everyone says it would make a great movie.” Dacko’s novel is published by the London-based Amberley Publishing. An Ebook in Kindle, Apple iBooks and Google Books is already available after European publication on Nov. 15, 2023. And Amberley is releasing “The Book of Quint” in North America on Tuesday Jan. 23, 2024. It has already been labeled a best seller by Wal-Mart after a successful pre-order over the last two months, and an audiobook is also in the works. You can follow the current status of the project on Dacko’s weekly broadcast called “The Jaws Obsession” on all major podcast platforms, or by visiting linktr.ee/ bookofquint.
NOPL Cicero to close for remodel LHS DECA Club students Northern Onondaga Public Library’s (NOPL) Cicero branch will close temporarily beginning Monday, Jan. 29. The library is launching a remodel of its Atrium, the central, public section of its indoor space. It will re-open its refreshed space in early February. The date will be announced as soon as possible after remodeling work begins. Due to the temporary closure, NOPL Cicero will stop accepting new holds on library materials as of Friday, Jan. 19. Patrons who receive a notice that previously placed holds are available may pick them up at the library through Friday, Jan. 26. Holds will resume when the library reopens. The other two libraries in the NOPL system, NOPL Brewerton and NOPL North Syracuse, will operate normally. “This project is all about making our library space more accessible, flexible, comfortable and convenient for our patrons,” Library Manager Nicole Hershberger said. “We’ve listened to visitors’ feedback and observed how people use the library. Our new layout and features will provide the community with an even better resource for learning, researching, meeting, accessing technology or just enjoying a good read.” The main elements of the remodel are a new, accessible, one-stop service desk for checkout and reference, the option of quick self-pickup and checkout for materials placed on hold, and a “marketplace” style new materials section at the front of the library. New seating options and workspaces will be installed, including a laptop bar and tables that are accessible to wheelchair users, more worktables and seating configurations, and comfortable reading chairs set by natural light from the library’s large windows. The entire space will also be freshly carpeted. The NOPL Board is seeking New York State Aid for Library Construction to pay for 75% of the project with 25% from capital improvement funds from NOPL’s 2024 budget. NOPL Cicero will display details about the remodel inside the library during January. The re-opening date and updates about temporary changes to holds pickups and other services before and during the closure will be posted on the library’s website at nopl.org and on NOPL’s Facebook and Instagram accounts.
qualify for state competition
Submitted photo
Fourteen Liverpool High School students recently participated in DECA’s regional qualifying competition at Le Moyne College. In the front row, from left, are Jimmy Bui, Harrison Hunter, Owen Michaud, Jamal Lesperance, Brady Michaud, Colin Avery and Gianna Carbone. In the back row, from left, are Raeanne Branca, Adella Tiric, Nhien Nguyen, Madison Riker-Abear and Katie Conover. Missing from the photo are Owen Salanger and Caleb Hultquist. Seven Liverpool High School students recently qualified for the New York State DECA competition that will be held March 6 to 8 in
Rochester. The competition is part of DECA’s annual State Career Conference. DECA l Page 3
Volume 131, Number 04 The Star-Review is published weekly by Eagle News. Office of Publication: 2501 James St., Suite 100, Syracuse, NY 13206. Periodical Postage Paid at Syracuse, NY 13220, USPS 316060. POSTMASTER: Send change of address to Star-Review, 2501 James St., Suite 100, Syracuse, NY 13206.
business news: Crumbl opens shop in Clay.
PAGE 3
sports: C-NS wrestlers best Carthage in dual meet final.
PAGE 12
business ��������������������� 3 death notices ����������� 4 Editorial ��������������������� 6 letters ������������������������ 7
Obituaries ������������������ 4 PennySaver ���������������� 8 schools ���������������������� 2 Sports ������������������ 12-13