Most CGI.pm tutorials I've seen are just HTML-ized versions of the PERL doc inside of CGI.pm itself, which is of no help in this area.

Actually you're wrong there. The CGI.pm has a section called Non-Standard HTML Shortcuts, which says:

Because of conflicts with built-in Perl functions, the following functions begin with initial caps:

Select
Tr
Link
Delete
Accept
Sub

It's looks to me as though this specifically addresses the problem that you're having.