Furan was deprotonated on treatment with 1/3equiv of Bu3MgLi in THF at rt. The lithium arylmagnesate formed was either trapped with electrophiles or involved in a palladium- catalyzed cross-coupling reaction with 2-bromopyridine. The highly coordinated magnesate Bu4MgLi2 (1/3equiv) proved to be a better deprotonating agent than Bu3MgLi; the monitoring of the reaction using NMR spectroscopy showed that the deprotonation of ...