Java Database Connectivity (JDBC)

From a java method, I want to use JDBC to get the current date from MS Access. In Oracle I would do "select sysdate from dual", but I can't figure out how to do it in MS Access. Here are some of my attempts. I have a table in my Access db called PARM.

//        String sql = "SELECT '0', NOW() FROM PARM";
 //rs.next() is false
//        String sql = "SELECT NOW() AS CURR_DT FROM PARM";
//rs.next() is false
//        String sql = "SELECT DATE() AS CURR_DT FROM PARM";
//rs.next() is false
//        String sql = "SELECT NOW()";  
//StringIndexOutOfBoundsException: String index out of range: -1
//        String sql = "select { fn now() } from parm";
        String sql = "SELECT Date()"; 
//java.lang.StringIndexOutOfBoundsException: String index out of range: -1
        ResultSet rs = stmt.executeQuery(sql);
        if (rs.next()) {
            return rs.getString(1);
        } else {
			return null;
		}