How to get First and Last record from a sql query?

[Caveat: Might not be the most efficient way to do it]:

(SELECT <some columns>
FROM mytable
<maybe some joins here>
WHERE <various conditions>
ORDER BY date DESC
LIMIT 1)

UNION ALL

(SELECT <some columns>
FROM mytable
<maybe some joins here>
WHERE <various conditions>
ORDER BY date ASC    
LIMIT 1)