"Recoverable fatal error: Argument 2 passed to t() must be an array, null given, called" <path to emaillog.module>

I was having difficulty with my 404 page not showing. Instead I was getting a generic "Error /n The website encountered an unexpected error. Please try again later." I turned on all error reporting and discovered the following error:

"Recoverable fatal error: Argument 2 passed to t() must be an array, null given, called" <path to emaillog.module>

When I disable the emaillog module, 404 works as expected.

line 110 is this: '@message' => strip_tags(t($log_msg['message'], $log_msg['variables'])),

When I change the second argument of this line to:
line 110 is this: '@message' => strip_tags(t($log_msg['message'], $log_msg)),

I now get:
Warning: htmlspecialchars() expects parameter 1 to be string, object given in check_plain() (line 1521 of /html/includes/bootstrap.inc).

My work-around

1. Changing $log_msg['variables'] to $log_msg
2. Disabling all warning messages under admin/config/development/logging (as it should be for live)
3. Disable logging_alert warn message, since I now get this alert every time

Allows the 404 redirection to happen. Watchdog updates as well, though I suspect not a "proper" log entry