Linus and I are equally Scandinavian, so please let me take this and run with it: The one brief, shining splitsecond of my life where I may actually have perceived something clearer than he did.

You are right, of course. Idioms are eminently slip-upable, especially - I would guess - for someone coming from a closely related language with many fixed expressions beguilingly close, just not quite as close as they may sound on first hearing.