I have a menu that uses Java script that I want to hide using a

<styles>#menu {
display:none;
}

and then I'd like to say:

<p>To use the sorting menu, please enable scripts</p>

and I want to do this using the <noscript> element. But first I wanted to make sure it wasn't proprietary or anything like that.

Yep. Use it that's what it is there for

However the better way round it, assuming search engines need to see the menu is to start with it visible then hide the menu with javascript using onLoad()