$\begingroup$

I've always wondered how some "mathematical coincidences" are published, or spread to a wider audience. For instance, the almost integer:

$$ e^\pi -\pi = 19.9990999\ldots $$

was "noticed almost simultaneously around 1988 by N. J. A. Sloane, J. H. Conway, and S. Plouffe" (Weisstein).

Were these "observations" published somewhere, and if so, what motivated such a publication, knowing that there was no explanation for the coincidence?