This afternoon is the 138th running of the Kentucky Derby!

Do you have your hat ready?

Got the mint juleps?

What about hot browns and Derby pie?

I can't wait! Don't care who wins - it's the spectacle that counts!

Take a look at the hat slide show - gotta love it!

I'm a confirmed hat wearer since I had skin cancer on the top of my head. Can't go in the sun without a hat on and I have some beauts, I must say!

(CNN) -- During the 138th annual "Greatest Two Minutes in Sports," bets will be lost, hearts will break and mint juleps will be sipped, but for many spectators at the Kentucky Derby and elsewhere, "It's all about the hats." And it's a time for the artists who craft these hats to sit back, rest their exhausted hands and look for their creations among the crowds on TV.

Peeking out of custom hatboxes, the one-of-a-kind Derby hats swoop, curl and entice, promising instant glamour.

But it's the moment when a woman carefully removes her crown from the clouds of hatbox tissue and places it at just the right angle, the brim dipping down alluringly over one eye and reaching up to the heavens at the other end, that she and her hat embody the same intriguing personality.

"It's theater ... a grand, glorious stage and anyone can participate," said Sally Faith Steinmann, owner and milliner for Maggie Mae Designs.

"My husband's mother went to the Derby when she was a teenager -- she's 98 years old -- and she remembers the sea of hats. In our culture, we don't have all that many occasions like this. There is nothing like it, from the infield to Millionaire's Row."

Any woman wearing the right hat can feel like queen for a day at the Derby event of her choice. Perhaps it is an escape from her daily life, or even daily persona, that lies behind the feminine mystery of Derby millinery.

From towering fascinators to 25-inch-wide Southern sloping brim hats, all adorned with an array of feathers, bows or giant flowers, each topper has a story to tell about the classically chic or flamboyantly bold woman wearing "her." The hat is too special to be an "it," Steinmann said.

snip

Read more here: http://www.cnn.com/2012/05/04/living/kentucky-derby-hats/index.html?hpt=hp_bn10

- lol