I could be hallucinating, but I think I read in the Ford Service Manual for the Contour that our cars have a programmed warmup idle sequence when the ambient temperature is cold. My car does the exact same routine as mentioned in the first post - it doesn't hang, it just takes about 20 seconds to go through the idle program. Regardless, it's not a bad idea to let it do its thing, as getting oil up into the top of the engine when cold is crucial, as long as it isn't screaming at high RPM when dry.
