I'm amused by the jargon-filled sentences one often finds in technical journals. I especially like to drop them in casual conversation, completely out of context.

There was an article on star formation in Scientific American some time in 2002. They reprinted it this month in their "resubscriber's bonus issue". It includes a great quotable line:

The logarithm of the metallicity falls off linearly with distance, with a slope of -0.07 dex per kiloparsec.

I don't know how I'm going to work that in at my next cocktail party, but I hope to slip it in right after "furlongs per fortnight".