The httpd.conf file has

AddHandler cgi-wrapper .cgi
AddHandler cgi-wrapper .pl
AddHandler server-parsed .shtml
AddType    text/html     .shtml
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in it.

I debugged my code enough from the commandline that I was able to get rid of the fatal error when the Carp was not in place, so I feel better about my code in general now, but I still don't know why the WARN shows up in the logs...