Rails - Jul 2005 - missing :encoding for mysql 4.1...

Because of missing :encoding parameter for mysql 4.1 I have to execute
the following command before any fetching queries:

ActiveRecord::Base.connection.execute("SET CHARACTER SET utf8")
and then I can use
@rows = MyModel.find(:all)

Without first query table returns ugly characters. It solved my
problem but it looks ugly. Definitely for MySQL 4.1. Rails needs
"encoding" parameter (like in PostgreSQL adapter). Am I right or is
there any another solution?

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JZ