parse on left hand side of R assignment

I keep finding myself in a situation where I want to calculate a
variable name and then use it on the left hand side of an assignment.
For example

iteration <- 1
varName <- paste("run",iteration,sep="")
myList$parse(text=varName) <- aColumn

In this particular case you can just use

myList[[varName]]<-aColumn.

I don't think you can (easily) use assign, despite the suggestion -- it
doesn't dispatch assignment methods.

If you wanted to do something of this sort for which the above didn't work
you could also learn about substitute()
  eval(substitute(myList$newColumn<-aColumn),
     list(newColumn=as.name(varName)))
as an alternative to parse().

	-thomas