import psycopg2

@needsNewCursor
def findItem(cursor, item_id):
    cursor.execute('SELECT name FROM items WHERE id = %s', [item_id])
    item_result = cursor.fetchone()
    # ...
    return item

# caller only needs to know about the ID
findItem(1234)

def needsNewCursor(func):
    def decorator(*args, **kargs):
        print 'Creating new cursor'
        # This is slightly different in the final code, but I'm only
        # concerned about how I'm dealing with decorators, at the moment
        cursor = createDefaultCursor()
        if cursor:
            with cursor:
                # Pass the cursor in as the 1st param
                return func(cursor, *args, **kargs)

        # Give the function a chance to deal with fails
        return func(None, *args, **kargs)

    # QUESTION: Is this enough?
    decorator.__name__ = func.__name__
    return decorator