read.table with a "memory connection"

Hi,

Is there a way to create "memory connections" in R which are valid 
connections to read.table (and associated function)? By saying "memory 
connection" I refer to something like a connection created from a simple 
character object (of length 1) - instead of having the content in a 
physical file just have it in an ordinary R object. More or less the 
equivalent to the std::istringstream class in C++.

thanks,
Thomas