Array mangled from view to controller

Hi,

Ruby 1.8.6 Rails 1.2.6

I have a simple @conditions variable setup in a controller's "list" method. It looks something like:

["abbr = ? and (start_date between ? and ?)", "AZ", '2008-08-01', '2008-08-31']

From any given view, I pass that variable back to the "export" method if they want to export a list of records to a CSV file:

link_to(    image_tag('export.png', :alt => 'Export to CSV file'),    :action => 'export',    :conditions => @conditions )

What I've noticed, however, is that it sometimes mangles the array and the order of the array, and I end up with:

["2008-08-01", "2008-08-31", "AZ", "abbr = ? and (start_date between ? and ?)"]

I'm definitely not altered the array myself, and it doesn't always happen, either. I'm completely baffled by this. What's happening?

Thanks,

Dan