Current Date

[toxalot]

Does MySQL have a function to get the current date?

I want to find the current date and compare it to the users subscription
expiry date to detemine if he still has access.

I am working in perl DBI and I could get the date from the server using
localtime or something, but it would be nice to just say 

SELECT * FROM tbl_name WHERE expiry_date > current_date

Without having to properly format localtime first.

If you could give me proper syntax in perl DBI, it would be greatly
appreciated

Jennifer