Frustration with date/times/epoch in v7.3. - Mailing list pgsql-general

Table:

      Column       |         Type          |                              Modifiers
-------------------+-----------------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------
 imported_date     | integer               | not null default 0


PG v7.2.1 (nice and clean):

select imported_date, "timestamptz"(imported_date) from server_accounts limit 1;
 imported_date |      timestamptz
---------------+------------------------
    1037498593 | 2002-11-16 18:03:13-08
(1 row)


PG v7.3 (nasty and dirty):

select imported_date, "timestamptz"(imported_date) from server_accounts limit 1;
ERROR:  Bad timestamp external representation '1027966107'

select imported_date, "timestamptz"( cast(imported_date as timestamp) )  from server_accounts limit 1;
ERROR:  Cannot cast type integer to timestamp without time zone

select imported_date, "timestamptz"( cast(imported_date as timestamptz) )  from server_accounts limit 1;
ERROR:  Cannot cast type integer to timestamp with time zone

select imported_date, ('Jan 1 1970'::DATE + (imported_date || ' seconds')::INTERVAL)::timestamp from server_accounts
limit1 
 imported_date |      timestamp
---------------+---------------------
    1027966107 | 2002-07-29 18:08:27

The last query works, but you must admit it is pretty nasty. Yes, I could create a from_epoch() function that takes
careof this, but should this really be nessecary? 

Is there a better way to go about this in v7.3 without changing the column type?