Get three posts before a certain date in Wordpress

I was wondering how I can get the last three posts before (and after) a certain date.

I was looking at query_post but I can't figure it out.

I'm looking to do this in functions.php. Ideally, it would return just basic home page stuff.. title, first image, num_comments, etc. I don't need to query the whole article.

EDIT: I would also like this all done in one function.. there are explanations out there on how to add a filter function.. which I don't want to do. If the functionality could be simply placed in add_filter(...) that would be fine.

Any help would be very mu开发者_如何转开发ch appreciated!

Matt

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Got'er. Uses AJAX. Thank you for being a baller PHP (inner functions).

function ajax_get_next_posts($wp) {
    if(!$_POST['date']) return 'error';

    function filter_where($where = '') {
            $where .= " AND post_date <= '{$_POST['date']}'";
        return $where;
    }
    add_filter('posts_where', 'filter_where');
    $posts = query_posts('posts_per_page=3');
    print_r($posts);
}