Extending Date._parse in Ruby

date.rb

# lib/core_ext/date.rb
require 'date'

class Date

  class << self
    alias :original_parse :_parse

    def _parse(input, comp=true)
      # mm-dd-yyyy
      if input =~ /^(\d{1,2})[^\d\w\s](\d{1,2})[^\d\w\s](\d{4})([T|\W].*)?/
         modified_input = "%0.4d/%0.2d/%0.2d#{$4}" % [$3, $1, $2]
      else
         modified_input = input
      end
     
      original_parse modified_input, comp
    end
  end
end