What does "I deployed my Bureau of Boyfriends mix-up line to a grudging but sweet reception. " mean in the following context? (This is an excerpt from an essay written by a man who donated his sperm when he was young and years later meets his children. One of his daughters, tells him about her boyfriend and turns out that his name is the same as his and writes "Had there been a mix-up at the Bureau of Boyfriends? Was I the one who was supposed to be dating her?". And in the following sentence, Jess is his daughter's mother.)

Whether we were pawns of fate or unwitting participants in a chromosomally arranged marriage, Jess and I quickly bonded. I deployed my Bureau of Boyfriends mix-up line to a grudging but sweet reception.

Question

What does "I deployed my Bureau of Boyfriends mix-up line to a grudging but sweet reception. " mean in the following context? (This is an excerpt from an essay written by a man who donated his sperm when he was young and years later meets his children. One of his daughters, tells him about her boyfriend and turns out that his name is the same as his and writes "Had there been a mix-up at the Bureau of Boyfriends? Was I the one who was supposed to be dating her?". And in the following sentence, Jess is his daughter's mother.)

Whether we were pawns of fate or unwitting participants in a chromosomally arranged marriage, Jess and I quickly bonded. I deployed my Bureau of Boyfriends mix-up line to a grudging but sweet reception.

cmertb · Answer

"Bureau of Boyfriends" is a fictitious organization within this joke that is apparently responsible for providing boyfriends to people. The joke is that the organization made a mistake ("there was a mix-up") and in reality the author himself was supposed to become the boyfriend of his daughter, rather than her biological father.

So after he thought of the joke, he told it to his daughter. In the way he phrases it, deploy = use; line = セリフ(the joke itself).

I deployed my Bureau of Boyfriends mix-up line = I used my joke about a mistake at the Bureau of Boyfriends

The second part of the sentence is a very common pattern, {something being done} to {adjective} reception. That is, the action was received in a way described by the attached adjective.

In this case, the joke he delivered was received by his daughter grudgingly (I suppose that means she didn't think it was all that funny), yet sweetly (nevertheless, she reacted in a nice way).

mo17 · Answer

@maikojp The confusion here is caused by a particularly long object.

In this case, the object of the sentence is “Bureau of Boyfriends mix-up line,” which means he deployed (said) the line to a grudging but sweet reception (his daughter, who reacted begrudgingly, but sweetly).

The line the object is referring to is “Had there been a mix-up at the Bureau of Boyfriends? Was I the one who was supposed to be dating her?”

Hope this clears up the confusion!

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