title: mysterious ruby syntax error
body: <p>i'm beyond confused: this is almost a copy/paste out of a RoR action mailer guide, and yet it throws a syntax error:</p>
  
  <pre><code>class Contact &lt; ActionMailer::Base
  
  
    def contact a_name, a_company, a_phone, a_email, a_comments
      subject    "Contact request from #{name}"
      recipients "some@address.com"
      from       "some_other@address.com"
      sent_on    Time.now
      body       { :name =&gt; a_name, :company =&gt; a_company, :phone =&gt; a_phone, :email =&gt; a_email, :comments =&gt; a_comments }
    end
  
  end
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>the error is:</p>
  
  <pre><code>app/models/contact.rb:9: syntax error, unexpected tASSOC, expecting '}' body { :name =&gt; a_name, :company =&gt; a_company... ^ app/models/contact.rb:9: syntax error, unexpected tASSOC, expecting tCOLON2 or '[' or '.' ...{ :name =&gt; a_name, :company =&gt; a_company, :phone =&gt; a_phone,... ^ app/models/contact.rb:9: syntax error, unexpected tASSOC, expecting tCOLON2 or '[' or '.' ...ompany =&gt; a_company, :phone =&gt; a_phone, :email =&gt; a_email, :... ^ app/models/contact.rb:9: syntax error, unexpected tASSOC, expecting tCOLON2 or '[' or '.' ..., :phone =&gt; a_phone, :email =&gt; a_email, :comments =&gt; a_comme... ^ app/models/contact.rb:9: syntax error, unexpected tASSOC, expecting tCOLON2 or '[' or '.' ...email =&gt; a_email, :comments =&gt; a_comments, } ^
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>any ideas? i can't figure out what i'm doing wrong here.</p>