using end as column name

I'm maintaining a rails 2.1 application that has some unfortunate choices for column names. For instance, an Event has a start and an end date. Instead of using start_at and end_at the original design uses start and end. Of course this leads to

  def end
    read_attribute(:end) || 1.hour.from_now
  end

I'm surprised this even parses. Is this legal ruby? The real issue is that erb is blowing up with 'stack level too deep' when running a backgroundrb job to send the reminder emails. The template is

    <%= [@event.name, @event.when_pretty, @event.location, @event.association,
 @event.notes].reject(&:blank?) * "\n" %>

If I deliver_reminder in the console there is no error, but when deliver_reminder is called during the background job, the error occurs.

Question: should I refactor to remove the end method, or is the stack error being caused by something else?

On line #1 of foo/mailer/reminder.rhtml

1: <%= [@event.name, @event.when_pretty, @event.location, @event.association, @event.notes].reject(&:blank?) * "\n" %>

lib/virtual_attributes_and_associations.rb:59:in `virtual_attribute_names'
lib/virtual_attributes_and_associations.rb:83:in `read_attribute_without_virtual'
lib/virtual_attributes_and_associations.rb:86:in `read_attribute'
vendor/rails/activerecord/lib/active_record/base.rb:2720:in `send'
vendor/rails/activerecord/lib/active_record/base.rb:2720:in `clone_attribute_value'
vendor/rails/activerecord/lib/active_record/dirty.rb:127:in `write_attribute'
vendor/rails/activerecord/lib/active_record/attribute_methods.rb:211:in `data='
lib/virtual_attributes_and_associations.rb:9:in `included'
vendor/rails/activesupport/lib/active_support/callbacks.rb:177:in `call'
vendor/rails/activesupport/lib/active_support/callbacks.rb:177:in `evaluate_method'
vendor/rails/activesupport/lib/active_support/callbacks.rb:161:in `call'
vendor/rails/activesupport/lib/active_support/callbacks.rb:93:in `run'
vendor/rails/activesupport/lib/active_support/callbacks.rb:92:in `each'
vendor/rails/activesupport/lib/active_support/callbacks.rb:92:in `send'
vendor/rails/activesupport/lib/active_support/callbacks.rb:92:in `run'
vendor/rails/activesupport/lib/active_support/callbacks.rb:272:in `run_callbacks'
vendor/rails/activerecord/lib/active_record/callbacks.rb:298:in `callback'
vendor/rails/activerecord/lib/active_record/base.rb:1450:in `send'
vendor/rails/activerecord/lib/active_record/base.rb:1450:in `instantiate'
vendor/rails/activerecord/lib/active_record/base.rb:582:in `find_by_sql'
vendor/rails/activerecord/lib/active_record/base.rb:582:in `collect!'
vendor/rails/activerecord/lib/active_record/base.rb:582:in `find_by_sql'
vendor/rails/activerecord/lib/active_record/base.rb:1341:in `find_every'
vendor/rails/activerecord/lib/active_record/base.rb:1376:in `find_one'
vendor/rails/activerecord/lib/active_record/base.rb:1362:in `find_from_ids'
vendor/rails/activerecord/lib/active_record/base.rb:537:in `find'
vendor/rails/activerecord/lib/active_record/associations/belongs_to_association.rb:44:in `find_target'
vendor/rails/activerecord/lib/active_record/associations/association_proxy.rb:196:in `load_target'
vendor/rails/activerecord/lib/active_record/associations/association_proxy.rb:99:in `reload'
vendor/rails/activerecord/lib/active_record/associations.rb:1084:in `contact'
lib/association.rb:52:in `associated_object'
lib/association.rb:48:in `association'
vendor/rails/activerecord/lib/active_record/associations/association_proxy.rb:177:in `send'
vendor/rails/activerecord/lib/active_record/associations/association_proxy.rb:177:in `method_missing'
app/views/foo/mailer/reminder.rhtml:1:in `_run_erb_47app47views47foo47mailer47reminder46rhtml'

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answers:

using end as column name

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