Aha! But what if you don't want to create a lexical variable that lives any longer than necessary? Well, you could use a bare block:

    {
      my $error = $!;
      $log->error($error)
    }
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But then what if you want the return value from the method? Well, you could use do:

    my $return = do { my $error = $!; $log->error($error) };
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That's probably the sane way to handle it. But what if you're not sane? Then we can have some fun!

    my $return = $log->error(${ \(my $e = $!) });
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Update: another fun way that never even makes the lexical variable:

    my $return = $log->error(@{[$!]});
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