title: Rails Format Nil Date
body: <p>I'm trying to format dates in a Rails view.</p>
  
  <pre><code>&lt;td&gt;&lt;%= l order.ship_date, :format =&gt; :long %&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>This doesn't work if the date is nil:</p>
  
  <pre><code>Object must be a Date, DateTime or Time object. nil given.
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>What's the best "Rails" solution?</p>