Lithium is the ribbon that threads its way into a variety of organolithium compounds to form a complex and rich embroidery which initiates much synthetic organic chemistry. To substantiate this claim, a 2005 SciFinder keyword search only for "lithium and base choice鈥 generated 54,146 hits. Organolithium chemistry is practiced daily in the laboratory. This Short Course, presented in collaboration with Thieme Verlag and based on our recently published Science of Synthesis (SoS) volume,1 represents an attempt to present the state-of-the-art of organolithium compounds in synthetic methodology.