A fascinating re-examination has appeared[cite]10.1002/anie.201505482[/cite] of a reaction first published[cite]10.1002/ange.19600721210[/cite] in 1960 by Wittig and then[cite]10.1002/jlac.19646790106[/cite] repudiated by him in 1964 since it could not be replicated by a later student. According to the new work, the secret to a successful replication seems to be the presence of traces of a nickel catalyst (originally coming from e.g. a nickel spatula?). In this recent article[cite]10.1002/anie.201505482[/cite] a mechanism for the catalytic cycle is proposed. Here I thought I might explore this mechanism using calculations to see if any further insights might emerge.