<p>I'd like to check a few queries generated by ActiveRecord, but I don't need to actually run them.  Is there a way to get at the query before it returns its result?</p>

Both of these articles should help you do what you want.
http://weblog.jamisbuck.org/2007/1/8/watching-activerecord-do-it-s-thing
http://weblog.jamisbuck.org/2007/1/31/more-on-watching-activerecord