I think I spoke to soon. I've re-imaged my machine (other things needed refreshing as well) and Firefox with only NoScript installed appears to be working fine.
I'm noticing a significant delay when following a Google search link. I used to be able to type in a query, say, "test" and Google would display links, I could click on the link and instantly go to the page with NoScript blocking all active elements on the page (my limited understanding). ...