Rails - Aug 2009 - Rails 2.3.2 way to do "Item.find( :all, :select => 'DISTINCT fieldname' )"

Is there a more modern way to do something like:

distinct_items = Item.find( :all, :select => ''DISTINCT
fieldname'' )

I have found a number of circa 2007 web pages that all recommend the
use of :select, and I can''t find a :distinct option for #find, but I
figured I''d ask.

--wpd