date monkey patching

date.rb

require 'date'
class Date 
  class << self
    alias_method :original_parse, :parse
  end
  def self.parse(str='-4712-01-01', comp=true,start=ITALY)
    if str == '0000-00-00 00:00:00'
      str = '1970-01-01 00:00:00'
    end
    self.original_parse(str, comp, start)
  end
end

puts Date.parse('0000-00-00 00:00:00')

http://markgandolfo.com/?p=35

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/6034514/changing-rails-default-date-parse-option-hide-options

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4470108/when-monkey-patching-a-method-can-you-call-the-overridden-method-from-the-new-i

https://github.com/datamapper/dm-core/issues/184